Being Protector
by Delphina2
Summary: Jacob trying to figure out how to be a protector and Man In Black trying to figure out what happened to him and how to get off the island. Starts the day after MIB turned into smoke.
1. Not Alone

**Author's Note: This story is basically K-T, but one chapter has something that could be considered M for one paragraph, it is marked as such.**

...

Jacob hadn't slept all night. He was hungry, his back hurt but he was relieved dawn had finally come. As he walked through the jungle looking for something to eat, he quickly ducked into a thicket of trees; the sunlight offered no relief from the eerie noises passing in the distance.

What _was_ it?

As he crouched low, listening intently, Jacob closed his eyes, hoping and wishing with everything he had inside of him that it couldn't see him or get to him in the thicket.

He sucked in a breath when he heard the clicking was coming closer. It was hovering outside. Trembling he opened his eyes and looked through the slats of thin branches and watched the dark shadow pass by and then screamed as it flew away.

Yesterday at first Jacob had thought the smoke that left the source was a natural result of his brother's body burning up in the light; that maybe it was like damp moss on a hot fire. When he'd found his brother dead he was too shocked that his mother had been wrong about them being able to kill each other that he forgot all about the smoke. He only wanted to get him home.

Unwilling to face what had happened he told himself they were just sleeping and then, he wandered, aimlessly, aching and confused. But as the sun went down he heard the noise from the source smoke again. The unnatural, terrifying sound reminded Jacob of the horror of what he had done, and each time it came close, his heart raced and pounded in his chest. All night the clicking and screaming had circled where he had curled up on the floor of in the dark jungle. At times he felt as if it knew where he was and it was taunting him, but then he feared it was searching for him to punish him. And now, he knew, it was not only a terror of the night, it could haunt him by day as well!

And yet, miraculously it was gone; it hadn't found in the tree!

Once he was sure it was gone, Jacob let out his breath, sat back and started to silently sob. He didn't know if it was fear, grief or his self-loathing that inspired the thought of giving up and just killing himself; but he couldn't. When his mother had forced this responsibility on him he'd seen, the source was every bit as important as she said it was. He didn't know why or how he knew, he just did. And someone had to protect it so until he found a replacement, as awful as he was at it, and as little as he knew about doing it, or as hard as it was going to be, the job was his.

...

Hunger finally drove him from hiding and with only the sound of the frogs and birds in the jungle, Jacob crept out and continued his search for fruit. It was good to know he could hide in the trees, but he really didn't want to live there and decided to find another, bigger place to hide.

He picked four mangoes and filled his pockets with grain nuts and headed for the beach. His thinking was that he could see it coming toward him, however once on the open sand Jacob felt extremely vulnerable; there was no place to hide.

It didn't take very long before he grew hot under the sun and just when he thought to go inland to find water and shade, he heard a loud explosion in the trees. He looked over and saw a few fall over one way in the distance and then there was another loud bang and more trees fell the other way, this time closer to him!

"Go away!" he mumbled, backing up. But whatever it was, once out of the jungle, came straight at him. There was nothing Jacob could do but drop his fruit and run for the water. With only one foot on the wet sand, he felt an icy grip around his other ankle and he fell to the ground.

Shouting in panic, his fingers raked the sand as he was pulled and dragged backward. When he came to a big rock jutting out of the ground, he gripped it and held on, kicking his captured leg and crying out at the thought of being killed and failing. It was strong and yet not so much so that he couldn't put up a good fight, though the flesh of his hands were being dug into by the sharp edges of his anchor stone.

The smoke rapped around more of his leg, inching upward and it pulled again, harder, making Jacob doubt he could fight it much longer. And then, just as he begged in his heart for more strength or a way to win, a wave broke closer to him. He thought nothing of it as it tumbled it's shallow foam towards him, soaking his tunic and pants. But as it reached his legs, the smoke let go!

When he looked back and saw the darkness shrinking from such a tiny depth of water, Jacob took the opportunity to crawl at first and then get up and splash out deeper into the waves. He stopped only when he was a good distance out, up to his knees and then stood in awe as he took his first real look at the giant black cloud.

It seemed to changed shape as it moved, clicking and slithering along the edge of the water like a headless snake that would jerk suddenly at times and then billow soft plumes. There were also flashes of lightning inside of it that reminded him of a rainless storm.

Probing the receding water with a few quick pokes, the smoke seemed to be attempting new strategies of crossing it, taking different shapes, even breaking into more than one cloud. As if it was testing what the wetness would do, it plunged over the water and lost it's form just as it had on contact.

Finally it gave up trying and Jacob shouted at it, "What do you want?" It lifted itself up high, looking down on him and Jacob hollered, "Can you even understand me?"

The smoke stopped moving momentarily and for that brief pause, Jacob knew that somehow, it did.

Jacob started to cry again and splashed water at it. "Leave me alone!" he begged. It moved out of the way of the water with a slick movement and then back again. Jacob splashed it again, crying and furious. "Go away!" Again it moved and it moved backwards slightly. Jacob got down on his knees in the water, letting the waves break around him as he broke down. "Please..." Suddenly, it pulled away and disappeared into the trees.

Trembling, Jacob found it hard to believe it had actually listened and then he heard the scream far in the distance. Slowly he made his way to the beach, wiping his face on his shoulder and sleeve. He bent down and picked up his fruit where he'd dropped it and kept an eye on the edge of the jungle as he made his way south. There were caves there on a cliff by the water and though they might not be as comfortable as home, they would offer some shelter if it rained and he could jump into the water if the smoke came back.

...

Sitting inside the mouth of the largest cave by the water, Jacob wrestled for days with what he'd done and worse, what he was supposed to do now. He was thirsty and hungry and couldn't live like this. He had to find a way to move around the island without being attacked.

And then, it began to storm heavily. At first he was grateful for his shelter and being dry and he stuck his head outside with an open mouth to drink what little rain he could catch. And as his head, hair and tunic became soaked, he realized, if the smoke didn't like the water, then he would be safe in the rain! It was a huge storm and he could tell it would last for hours, maybe all day and night, so he climbed out the back way, struggling to make it back up the narrow passages until he reached the ground above. He ran through the rain, around the crater and into the jungle, excited for the opportunity.

It wasn't until he had been running for a very long time that he realized, he wasn't getting tired. Certainly he noticed he was out of breath when he stopped running, but it wasn't the kind of painful exhaustion he used to have. He didn't dare go back to his mother's cave for anything, but instead, took off his shirt and used vines to tie off the bottom and the sleeves and then filled it with coconuts and any fruit or roots he could find. He drank as much as he could from the river and got back in time to the cave to crack open a couple coconuts with rocks and lay them open to catch rain for water later.

...

Those first few months it rained almost every other day and Jacob learned to hunt and fish in it and collected enough wood to let dry out for a fire and twine to make a net so he didn't have to use his shirt. But he wasn't exactly comfortable and thinking of things he couldn't make for himself, one afternoon he decided to make one quick trip to his mother's cave on his way home.

While there, to his dismay, it stopped raining.

Oddly enough the rain had never before stopped on him in the middle of an excursion and so this came as a shock. As he planned, Jacob took the metal cup and the knife. He carefully put the cooking pot in his net bag as well and went through the blankets for those he could use. As he was leaving, he glanced over at where they lay and was amazed. Unchanged they still looked to him as if they were sleeping; peaceful and silent.

Jacob knew from watching dead animals and passing one of his brother's people who had died long ago that usually bodies changed when they died. They would dry up and bugs would eat them if the animals didn't. But not his brother and mother. It both relieved him to not have to see them that way and it made him sad to think, somehow, they might be here like this forever.

The clicking outside came too swiftly for him to react and before Jacob could run, the smoke entered the cave and blew past him, knocking him over onto his back. It then went into the place he and his brother slept and in one sudden blast, knocked out anything stored in there all over the cave. Jacob scooted back, breathing heavily, wondering why it wasn't grabbing him again but it seemed only intent on breaking the things in the cave, until it came to the dead bodies.

It hovered there, inspecting them, the flashing and clicking contained in a billowing black cloud that looked as if it might pour rain over them.

"Please don't touch them," Jacob whispered. The headless neck of smoke focused it's attention on him and then as if mocking him blasted itself in between the bodies, sending them each in different directions and Jacob felt his heart breaking to see them treated so harshly. His brother's body was then picked up and thrown against the wall and Jacob shouted, "Stop it! Leave him alone!" The smoked turned on him and more angry than fearful Jacob ordered it, "You are not to touch my_ brother_!"

The smoke slowly moved towards him and Jacob did his best to stand his ground, though shaking and crying, he blinked at it, not even caring if it killed him. He was supposed to protect the light, but right now, he felt his heart couldn't allow him not to also protect what was left of those he loved.

The whirling smoke backed away from him and dashed out of the cave. Jacob let out a big breath and looking down on them, he saw the truth. It might be slower, but they were decaying. He couldn't bring himself to touch them or put them back, so he grabbed his things and left them as they were.

Making his way back home, Jacob heard the clicking following him, but he wasn't frightened of it now. It could have killed him and it didn't. If it was going to eventually anyway, Jacob didn't want to cower and run. Once on the edge of the jungle before heading into the open towards his cave, the smoke decided to confront him again.

It circled him and then stopped in front of him. Then, it dropped something on the ground. His brother's knife!

"Where did you get that?" Jacob asked it.

It hovered there and then left. Jacob watched it go and then picked up the Roman dagger. His brother had killed their mother with it and Jacob had never wanted to see it again. He had a mind to leave it here or take it home and toss it into the ocean, but his curiosity got the better of him. Why do this?

Jacob set his bag down, strapped the dagger around his shoulder and headed in the direction the smoke had gone.


	2. What you did

Now that he had seen his own corpse, he knew without a doubt what he already suspected; he was dead.

He still didn't _feel_ dead, whatever that was supposed to feel like. He had never thought about it when alive, but having seen dead bodies he would have expected everything to just end. For a moment, that's what it had felt like too; a quiet, hopeless, lonely void right before he was violently pulled into this surreal existence.

It had felt as a million ropes tied around all of his insides had ripped him right out of his flesh. In the agony and confusion he had panicked and tried to escape, moving by his will only, aimlessly through the jungle. At first when the physical pain had dampened he was relieved, and then he realized he had completely lost any physical sensation. He didn't even understand how he was able to move and he ached that while he could travel in the direction he wanted on the island, nothing he saw or touched felt real to him anymore.

He could see the trees and the rocks, but they were darker and shadowy and while nothing was transparent, he often had the sensation of passing directly through them. And it only got worse at night, unable to see much of anything he wandered in the pitch black, frightened and unsure what to do with himself.

There were times when he thought he could see something glowing in the forest leaves, like a beacon drawing him to it, but when he'd get close, it would disappear completely as if someone had blown out a candle. He knew now, after confronting him, that the flickering light he'd been surrounding all night was Jacob.

Their mother had told them they couldn't hurt each other, but his brother had found a way. Jacob had promised this would be worse than death but when he had been stopped by the water he had looked into his brother's terrified face and it was clear; Jacob had no idea what he'd done. He'd been sheltered and coddled his whole life and there was no way he had the sophistication to understand that his temper would net this result.

Jacob had killed him, though. He had just murdered the only love Jacob ever knew; did he expect a better reaction from Jacob than his own was against his mother?

His reflection in the water clarified why Jacob was so frightened and confused. He wasn't a ghost like the woman he'd seen as a child, he didn't even have the dignity of a human form, he didn't even know _what_ he was. Even in ignorance, it was a wretched thing to do and he'd entertained the thought of tormenting his brother with fear as his revenge, and while his brother hid, he'd thought of ways it could be done. He'd experimented with picking things up and destroying them. Whatever he was, there was some power in it he could exploit and he'd planned for that one time when the rain would end earlier than expected and he'd catch Jacob unable to hide.

Plans had changed, though. Hearing his brother desperately defending his body, the hurt and what he begrudgingly acknowledged as love in his voice, he'd been unable to carry through with it. Jacob was simple, and had his issues, but nobody he had ever met in his village; not even their own mother in all her insane obsession, loved him like that. And that being what it was, the truth would do more damage by far than a nameless fear.

The dagger was the only thing he could think of to try to communicate, and it was working!

He teased Jacob in the direction he wanted him to go, only letting himself be seen when he was straying off course.

"Stop! I want to talk to you!" Jacob called. With his words came a feeling of being tugged, similar to the push he'd felt when Jacob had told him to go away. Depending on the strength of emotion behind his words, Jacob seemed to have some sort of power over him, though it was clear he didn't realize it... yet.

When finally, they arrived, he felt satisfied to see Jacob looked overcome. He covered his mouth and nose and in his disgust for the scene seemed to forget all about the black cloud that had led him there.

The bodies were still scattered, decaying rapidly in the elements, a few having been eaten by insects and island rodents and probably smelling awful by now. He'd learned that while he could see and hear, and even move or pick up objects, he didn't have any other senses. No smell, taste and anything he touched was as sensation-less as if he were using a tool to move it. Because he still didn't now how to stop moving for long without feeling himself slowly dissipate into the air, he left Jacob alone to think on what he'd found.

Would Jacob remember he'd told him, their mother did this?

...

Near evening when he returned to the village, he saw Jacob had put his people into a pile and had lit it on fire. He would have preferred to see them buried but was grateful for at least this token of respect, though, he didn't think he could watch.

"Wait!" Jacob called. He felt the pull to respond and guessed that if Jacob wanted him badly enough, he wouldn't have a choice. He didn't want it to come to that so he returned.

He did his best to hover in front of his brother, trying not to watch the people he'd lived with going up in flames and smoke behind him.

"My mother did this, didn't she?" he asked. Jacob never could hide his emotions and his anguish over the realization was welcome, though unsoothing. Even if he now understood their mother's death sentence was justified, his own body was decaying in a cave with her.

"Why did you show me?" Jacob asked. "What are you? Did the source send you to me? Are you supposed to help me protect the island?"

It was ludicrous. Jacob was always too dim to figure anything out on his own. Even as kids, unless it was explained clearly, he'd have that stupid expression of confusion the he wore now. Exasperated, he started to try to leave and heard Jacob shout after him.

"I'm not done with you!"

The pull was even greater this time and he moved around the fire and around Jacob, angry at feeling trapped. As he did, Jacob lifted up the dagger in it's sheath and said softly, "This belonged to my brother." He took the blade out and said, "He used it to kill my mother. Did you know that?"

He moved closer, hovering just inches from Jacob's face. Somehow, being close to him made it easier to hold his form.

"So I assume you know what I did too?" he asked. He stayed still until Jacob teared up. "I don't understand. He wasn't supposed to die. She said I couldn't hurt him!"

How many times did he tell Jacob their mother was a liar and he still wasn't able to go there? Such blind, idiotic devotion! Without knowing what it would do, he backed away slowly and then, with only a few paces between them, he charged his brother. Instead of knocking him over backwards as he intended and as he knew he could were Jacob a tree or even a huge boulder, he instead merely passed either through, or around him, he couldn't tell.

"Don't do that again!" Jacob shouted after him. He felt the words like darts in his back, sticking to him, but kept going towards the trees. Maybe if he got far enough away, Jacob wouldn't have power over him. "Are you my brother?" he heard shouted after him.

In the shock of Jacob's quick epiphany, he stopped completely. Quickly he began to lose any sense of his own form and felt as if he was a mist drying up in the sun. Jacob walked towards him, looking around as if he didn't understand it either.

"Are you still here?" Jacob asked. Then, his voice cracked as he said, "I need to know." Jacob stood there, arms down to his sides, one hand open the other holding the knife. "Please answer me..."

In an instant he took his thick smoke form again and unable to pass near Jacob now, he moved quickly around him like a vortex. He couldn't talk, but he could feel and he could remember. He thought about what Jacob had done to him and caused this and as he relived the pain of it he saw on Jacob's face there was recognition, as if he was watching it.

"I did that?" Jacob asked.

He didn't know why Jacob could see his thoughts, but when he realized it he purposefully thought of the many times he had asked Jacob to leave their mother, the times he had told him she was crazy, had begged for his brother to come live in the village, to leave the island. He showed Jacob how he'd beaten him time and again, and how their mother had lied to them.

"It is you..."

Satisfied that Jacob finally understood, he moved away from him. It hurt to remember so much, as if he was reliving it all. He decided he would try to defy his brother now; if Jacob knew what he had done and would take advantage of his power, so be it. He'd been beaten by him many times when he was alive, what was the difference now, but he wasn't going to make it easy.

Just as he entered the treeline, something did stop him but it wasn't the tug on his insides he felt before. Rather, he was on the ground, and he could feel it, solid! Looking down, what he saw wasn't as dark as it had been and he felt and lifted... hands. His hands. Turning in place he saw Jacob was as astonished as he was.


	3. What power is this?

**Author's Note: Thanks for the review, Delia! So nice to have one when it's only just begun... I really don't know where I'm going with this story. Unlike my others which were both planned out pretty intensely, this is more free writing possibilities rather than plot.**

...

The power his mother had given him was terrifying. He'd watched the smoke flying away from him and desperate to see his brother and talk to him face to face, he'd wished for it: and there he was.

"Did you bring me back?" his brother asked, stepping towards him.

Jacob didn't answer because he wasn't sure.

Instead of thanking him or talking to him about what was happening to them, his brother pointed at the flames with a mixture of excitement and anger. "Can you bring _them_ back too?"

Jacob watched in horror as his brother ran over and bent down pulling at the ankle of one of the burning corpses. The charred foot came off in his hand and his brother stumbled back and then stood still, staring into the flames. Jacob started to walk back towards him and with disgust, his brother tossed the foot back in.

He then reached out towards the flames and as his hand came close to it, his fingers dissolved into thin pillars of smoke, repelled by some invisible barrier.

Solemnly his brother said, "I can't feel the heat." When he pulled his arm back, his hand reformed. "I'm not really here, Jacob." He looked at him with an expression of unimaginable loss. "This is just an illusion... "

Jacob winced and then said, "I don't think I can bring you back."

"So you know what you did to me then?"

"I didn't mean to..." Jacob said. "I'm sorry."

"You're _sorry_?" his brother asked with a laugh. He shook his head and looked back into the fire. After a long while he sighed and said, "There'd be no point bringing them back. They were likely to all kill each other eventually..."

Jacob continued to breath through his mouth to avoid the stench as he looked at the burning bodies. The black smoke that lifted above them reminded him of what his brother had looked like before. He wondered why the source had changed his brother and what would have happened to him if Jacob had killed him some other way, if he even could.

"Where do you think they went?" he asked.

"I don't know, but at least they were able to leave." His brother gestured at the smoke and explained, "That's _real_ smoke, Jacob. It's burning their physical bodies. My body is in the cave with mothers. You know there's a difference, don't you?"

Jacob was used to his brother getting frustrated and condescending, but he didn't blame him for being upset and carefully tried to explain what he was asking. "But _why_ are you different?"

His brother put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes. "How am I supposed to know, Jacob? _You_ did it. You tell _me_. Why am I still here? Why didn't I just die and go where everyone else goes?"

Jacob didn't know and didn't think his brother had the patience to talk it out with him right now. When he didn't answer, his brother turned again to watch the fire and Jacob looked into the sky. If he didn't leave soon it would be dark before he returned to where he left the things. He didn't want to leave his brother, though and decided it didn't matter. He could get them tomorrow.

He wondered how his brother could really think so little of the people he lived with if he was so obviously upset about them being killed. There had to be something good about them that his brother just wasn't willing to admit. It might be like how his brother thought he was stupid when most of the time he just didn't listen or didn't understand what Jacob was saying.

"I'm glad you're here," Jacob said spontaneously. He offered a smile when his brother glanced at him. It quickly fell and his heart jumped at the fury that flashed under his brother's dark brows. "What?" he asked.

Sticking out his jaw with rage, his brother growled, "You did this to me!" And then he came at Jacob like he'd never seen him do before. Growing up, it was always Jacob who had been on the attack and now, for the first time, it was he who put his hands up to defend himself. But before his brother got to him, he turned back into smoke and blasted around Jacob and past him into the trees. He disappeared out of sight with a whining scream and Jacob didn't dare call after him this time.

It had obviously been the wrong thing to say, but wrong or not, he meant it and he wondered if that made him all the worse of a person.

...

Everything changed after he learned what he had done to his brother. Jacob had felt alone and burdened before; frightened and hopeless. But now, he took his job more seriously. It wasn't just a responsibility his mother had put on him, there were frightening powers associated with it and Jacob needed to be extremely careful until learned what they were. He began to pay attention to everything he did and said, and took every thought captive, examining it to be sure he didn't ask for something arbitrarily.

One of the first things he noticed was that while he still felt uncomfortable when he went without food or water, his needs were different than before. Just as when he was running and hadn't rested, he recognized hunger and thirst, but could put off doing anything about it without much physical affect.

Testing his theory, for days he didn't eat or drink and while his hunger and thirst grew, he didn't feel weak or dizzy like he remembered. He could also hurt himself, but with just a bit of washing of the wound, it would heal very quickly. Sleep was similar. If it wasn't for boredom, he could keep himself up for nights without losing his fight with consciousness as he would before when waiting up for his mother to return from her long walks at night.

She never talked to him about much that was interesting, not like his brother or his brother's people that Jacob would watch, but her presence was reassuring. Even if his brother was the one she preferred, in the end, she had needed Jacob as much as he needed her. He remembered how it was after she made him protector; he felt so connected to her. They were the same... she had said it and he had felt it for the first time. She had picked him and not just because he was all she had, like he thought at first, but because she truly believed, he was the one the source wanted.

As soon as he had that solidarity he had wanted with his mother his whole life, it was over. His brother had taken her. Jacob felt the emotions coming up again and the hate he had for his brother... he'd wanted to kill him. But he couldn't.

And now he was out there alone, in some sort of half-existence. Jacob checked his thoughts and closed his eyes, pressing his fingers into the wet lashes. That's not what he wanted... this is not what he wanted... No matter what his brother had done, he wouldn't let himself hate him and hurt him more by thinking awful thoughts that might come true.

Now that she was gone, Jacob had to be the strong one. She had said he was good, he doubted she would think that now. She would want them to reconcile. She would want him to help his brother. She would want him to protect the island and the source, no matter how he felt about it. That's what she had done. He'd seen it; she'd done it for hundreds of years. He would too, he'd do it for thousands if he had to.

...

Jacob rushed up the cave's back ladders to the top of the cliff and looked out. He'd just awoken out of a vivid dream of something floating on the water. It looked like the ships his brother used to describe and as he looked out and saw with his eyes what he'd dreamed, he had the distinct feeling that he could have brought them to the island or sent them away; he had a choice.

Jacob didn't know what the right thing to do was, his mother had said people were bad, and she must have had some reason for killing his brother's people. He didn't want to be faced with those kinds of decisions, and worse, wondering what his brother would do if they weren't alone on the island anymore.

It had been months since they'd last encountered each other and as usual it was brief and ugly. His brother seemed to be able to take either his smoke form or his body at will and was doing his own experimenting. The only thing he would share was that, he was miserable. Maybe he could use some company besides Jacob?

The decision couldn't be made lightly and Jacob walked along the cliff and shoreline of the island, keeping the ship in site until finally he decided, what could it hurt? From his dream he knew there were only ten men on board and they were hurt and hungry. Even if Jacob did send them away, he guessed they would die soon. At least if they came here, they stood a chance.


	4. The Water Problem

Taking his human form allowed him to rest, but it seemed that time passed more slowly this way and he couldn't exactly sleep. It was a relief to not constantly have to move in order to avoid feeling like he would dissipate into nothingness.

At first he'd thought to build a shelter for this illusion to sleep in - but why? This form wasn't affected by the elements, he didn't even feel wet, cold or any discomfort from rain or wind.

And he couldn't even enjoy the lack of pain because it also meant there was no measure of comfort to be reached either. No warmth he'd noticed at the fire, but there was also no difference between a soft bed of grass or sharp rocks. He could lay with a big rock in his back all night, knowing it was there and yet not feel any more pain from it than when he carefully laid down layers of dried grass and a blanket he'd found.

For something to do a few nights ago he'd build a fire for the light so he could see. But then he realized, there really wasn't anything_ to_ see. The trees, the plants, the animals; boring.

He could hunt, but it was so effortless to reach out and smack a boar against a tree that there was no sport in it. And though he tried, he couldn't eat. Fruit, nuts, meat; he could chew and swallow, but it was all pretend. There was no taste and he was just holding the bits he'd been manipulating so that when he was done, he could open his hand and the food he'd just 'consumed' would be there as before he put the pieces in his mouth.

It was truly defeating.

Killing might come in useful later, but he certainly wasn't going to do any hunting for Jacob. His brother preferred fish anyway.

Water was a serious problem. Not only in the rain or at the shore, but lakes were just as impossible to cross when he was smoke as the sea. And he found he didn't exactly love rivers either.

He could cross streams through a hopping like movement, almost without incident if they were small, but unless he found rocks and stones to pass over, the strange repulsion he felt near any water reminded him of his limitations and that irritated him. Because there were streams nearly everywhere on this island, he was almost always irritated when he went any distance, so he kept to a dry area in the center of the island.

Laying there awake all night he'd came up with something to do in the morning. When the sun rose he took a walk in his human form and started collecting rocks. He'd played Senet many times against himself and why not now? He smirked imagining his smoke form playing against his human form. It was stupid, but what else was there to do?

By midday he'd found half a dozen perfect sized smaller black rocks and only two shining white rocks. To give himself a challenge, he was looking for identical sizes and pure colors. Traveling along the stream that led to the shore seemed to give him more success than wandering looking between where the plants grew and in his human form he could get in the water.

As the sun was setting and he was far from where he usually rested, he heard something he hadn't in what felt like years; someone's voice besides his own or Jacob's. From his time with his people he knew better than to just rush up to them, so he hid and crept closer to take a look.

There were three men, two younger and barely shaving in linen tunics and the other only slightly older, not enough to be their father, but with broad shoulders and a stern voice. The older man wore skins and his language was unfamiliar. Listening to it for only a few minutes he could tell the boys were likely servants because they weren't given options for the tasks they were carrying out.

He wondered if Jacob knew they were here and more importantly, he wondered, how they got here!

Making his way to the shore, he carefully kept hidden from the other seven men he saw in a camp they had set up. They were dressed much like the other older man with the boys, and most of them were much older. Looking out into the water he was suddenly filled with hope; a ship. Even more incredible was a smaller boat on the sand.

The sun had already passed behind the mountain behind them and it would be dark soon. He didn't want to be in the small boat at night, so without giving it further consideration, he ran for it. He was slow on his feet, and thought to change to smoke to get there faster, but he could use that form if he needed to when they tried to stop him.

They only noticed him when he got near the water and only started shouting angrily when he started pushing their boat into the rising tide. When he got in the boat, he felt an arrow go through his shoulder.

Their words were meaningless and the arrow, didn't hurt him at all. He reached up and pulled it out, more out of it hindering his movement than anything. He tossed it in the ocean and thinking quickly on what he had to do to make this boat work, he took out a wood stick from the floor of the boat and started to push at the sand under the water.

The men were nearly to him before he started moving, and feeling the excitement of his first opportunity to leave, he didn't even consider what would happen if he was in his human form on the water. He swung the stick at one of them, but there were too many. They had his arms and were striking him before he realized he couldn't turn to smoke. It didn't hurt, but he didn't have much strength to fight all of them off in this form, so he just had to take it.

They were shouting to each other and talking as they took turns reaching into the boat to punch his face and his gut and when he gave up and lay still, they finally stopped. He groaned for their benefit but he saw the questions on their faces and one of them put his finger where the arrow had gone in and whispered something in awe.

All but one stood in the water around the boat, holding it and looking down on him. The one in the boat squatting over him, a skinny, toothless man, who had what looked less like a weapon and more like a cooking knife. He jammed it up at his neck and as the point of it's cool blade made a slit in his throat, he was amazed at how ruthless and violent these people were. All he wanted was their boat.

No blood came out of the wound, from what he could feel, and it closed up as soon as the knife was removed. For two seconds they all stared at him.

He had been laying there, eyes half shut, abut for his own amusement, he sat up with wide eyes and shouted at them, baring his teeth.

Like little girls, the grown men screamed and splashed away from the boat. The skinny man dropped his knife and fainted over backwards in the boat. The rest all ran for the shore, leaving him sitting in his prize, chuckling at them.

He got back out of the boat and leaving his hostage in it, again began to push the boat deeper in the water. He didn't need to be smoke to leave the island, and if he was invincible, life would be pretty easy, even if he couldn't enjoy it.

Being anywhere but here would be enough. As he got closer to the breaking waves, they proved to be more difficult than he imagined. While the first few pushed him down and tore the boat from him, once he got up again, another bigger wave filled the boat with water. It turned over completely, dumping the skinny man and sending the boat out of his hands towards the shore.

Cursing, he drug the man to the land and tossed him on the wet sand and then used what minimal strength he had to lift the boat. Whatever Jacob had lent to this body, it wasn't enough. From the shore he could see the men who were so afraid of him before were now curiously watching in wonder at his incompetency.

He shouted at them, "How am I supposed to know how to use a boat, I've never seen one before!"

When he saw that the flipped boat was being pounded into the wet sand, buried deeper with each new wave that poured over it, he realized, if he didn't get their help or let them take over, his shot at leaving would be gone.

By the time he gave up, the stars were out and disgruntled at his failure he stormed out of the water and down the shore. At a distance he sat in the sand, with his elbows on his knees and watched their silhouettes against the white breakers, digging out their possession. They had timidly moved towards the water until they saw he wasn't coming after them, but by the time they carried the boat back to their camp, they were completely ignoring him.

He was no stranger to humiliation and knowing he could kill any of them and all of them whenever he wanted to helped him feel somewhat better. Just like his people, he would figure out a way to get them to help him. For now, he was just going to do what he should have done all along; watch how to use the boat so he could get to the ship.


	5. Gods and War

**Author's Note: Thanks for the review! This is actually my 4th Lost story. I haven't decided yet if I want to tie it into the other three.**

...

"What are you doing?" Jacob asked his brother.

He looked up in surprise from his work on a large wooden disk and then smiled as he asked, "What's it look like I'm doing?"

"Seems impractical for a bowl."

His brother laughed and flipped it over and Jacob saw that on it was a carving of a four legged animal with a long snout and large ears surrounded by what he guessed was a stylized representation of smoke. It wasn't very good.

"It's a shield and that, Jacob, is a wolf." He ran his figure over the carving as he said, "They're about as big as a boar, covered with thick fur and they have sharp teeth. I picked it because wolves are an animal associated with Mars, the Roman god of war. What do you think?"

Jacob shrugged and then asked, "What's a god?"

His brother set the shield down on it's edge, balancing it with his fingers as he answered. "Someone with special powers. Others worship him when they need his help."

"What's worship?" Jacob asked.

Looking down with a chuckle his brother sighed and seemed to think on his answer. "Well... it can be many things, Jacob." His brother met his eyes again and said, "Mostly people do what they think their god wants. Some make sacrifices, bring him gifts, that kind of thing..."

"Did these men tell you about their god?" Jacob asked.

"No. My people used to tell stories," he said. He gestured in the direction of the beech camp and said, "And those two teens, they're from the Roman Empire, the place our real parents came from. They speak Latin like us. They were kidnapped and enslaved by the barbarians they're with. While we've been stuck on this island, Jacob, our home land is being invaded and attacked."

"So what's the shield for?" Jacob asked.

His brother kicked it up into his hands and gripped hold of a strap he'd attached to the inside of it. Bracing it against his shoulder he said, "Get a stick from that pile and hit me with it."

"I don't want to hit you," Jacob said.

"I can't show you what the shield is for unless you do."

Curious, Jacob took a stick and gave a swing that grazed the shield.

"Oh come on, you can do better than that, don't be such a girl."

"I don't want to hurt you," Jacob said.

His brother's tone sharpened. "Don't worry, a stick can't do anything to me."

Jacob adjusted his grip and then hit the shield hard enough to make his hands sting when it made contact. His brother sighed.

"Don't aim for the _shield_, Jacob, aim for me. Why do I have to explain everything?" He braced himself again and said, "You're so slow it's no wonder mother wanted me to replace-"

Jacob quickly lifted the stick to his left and when his brother faced the shield that direction Jacob spun around and struck his brother's butt.

"Ow!" his brother said, turning his back side away with the shield between them.

"I thought you said it wouldn't hurt," Jacob accused, with a grin.

"It hurt my _pride_," his brother answered. "Try again. I'll be ready this time."

"No," Jacob said and threw the stick down. "It's a stupid game."

"It's not a game," his brother said. "It's called war."

Jacob felt the boys were approaching and looked in their direction as he said, "And you're teaching these people how to war?"

"They don't have to be taught, it's what people do. I'm teaching the boys to defend themselves so when the inevitable happens, my worshipers will be the one's doing the killing."

Jacob squinted at him, taking in what that meant, but his brother just raised his brows. The boys came to the clearing and when they saw Jacob, they froze.

"Darius, Remus, allow me to introduce you to... Apollo. "

Both of them looked Jacob over and then fell to the ground.

"What's wrong with them?" Jacob asked.

His brother came close and whispered, "Another way to worship... just go along with what I say for now." His brother turned to the prostrate boys and said, "Stand up you two. Did you get the information?"

The boys scrambled to their feet and nodded. Jacob took a seat on a rock at a distance, but listened as they explained the strengths and weaknesses of each man in their camp, including any known fears. As they spoke, his brother held up pieces of stiff leather to the boys making markings as he commented on what they were saying. Jacob had seen the boys cower and averted their eyes when with the barbarians. They would scramble to please so as not to be punished, but the way they looked at his brother was different. They clearly admired him and sought his approval; and he gave it, praising them and then giving them more directions that they seemed eager to carry out.

"You're looking stronger, too," his brother said. "You've been lifting the stones the way I showed you, haven't you?" They nodded and when he squeezed their arms the boys grimaced, flexing their muscles for his testing. "I'm proud of you!" he said. "We've not much time before they'll miss you, so eat what you can and then take your firewood from my pile."

Jacob winced when the boys kissed his brother's hands after he presented the birds he'd cooked for them. His brother also offered them cut fruit before he came over to stand next to where Jacob was sitting.

"You want some of the left overs?" his brother asked.

"No, thank you," Jacob said. Looking up at him he asked, "Is it necessary to teach these boys to kill?"

With his hands on his hips, his brother said, "They know how to kill, they just aren't very good at it yet." Glancing at Jacob he said, "Hopefully we won't have to kill all of the barbarians. We'll need at least three to join us to sail the ship... unless you want to come along."

Jacob's jaw dropped and before he could put his thoughts together to respond to that, the boys finished, and his brother sent them off quickly and cleaned up after them. He then sat down with the leather and a small knife, cutting along where he'd made his marks.

"I thought you couldn't pass over the water," Jacob said.

"Like this," he said, gesturing to his body, "I can go over the water in a boat. Once I get home, I'll see what happens. If it turns out I'm smoke there too, I don't think Rome is going to have anything else to worry about... so long as they keep me happy."

Jacob sat blinking at him, stunned. "What about the real god?"

"If he was real, he would have helped them."

Jacob looked down and after a while his brother spoke again. "I just hope you don't plan to make the same mistake Mother made."

"What mistake?" Jacob whispered.

"She said she kept me here because she loved me, but that's not love, Jacob. If you care about someone, you want them to be happy. And I can't be happy here." He gestured to Jacob and said, "I would never make you leave the island, because I care about you, and you said this is your home." His brother paused, studying his face and then asked, "You do care about me, don't you Jacob?"

Jacob nodded and his brother tossed the leather he'd been working on to the side and picked up another one. "I'm making armor for them. One of the men from my people had a set and let me try it on once. It was pretty impressive... I doubt this will be as good, but it'll be something."

"Mother said you _couldn't_ leave," Jacob pointed out.

Looking up from his work again his brother said, "She also said we couldn't hurt each other and look how that turned out."

It hurt to be reminded again and his brother seemed to only want to make it worse. "She lied to us, Jacob. She said "dead" was something I would never have to worry about it. But I _did_ die and let me tell you, I wish I would have worried about it more because then maybe I could have protected myself... been smarter... thought through what I was doing."

He threw that leather piece down on top of the other one and picked up another and continued.

Confused with conflicting emotions, Jacob sat quietly for a long time. He felt awful for his brother, and guilty, but the thought of him leaving terrified Jacob. He could live with missing him, that loneliness was deserved for what he'd done, but he couldn't help feeling what his brother was doing was wrong. His brother didn't care about those boys any more than he did his own people. He was using them as another means to an end. What end would he have once he was 'home' and presented himself as a god to them?

His brother had said that he cared about Jacob, though. It reminded him of what he'd been thinking about their mother over the past few months.

"I don't think Mother lied when she said we couldn't hurt each other," Jacob said.

"She lied," his brother insisted. "Sure, I might not hurt _physically_ anymore, but inside..." His brother pausing to tap his chest with the tip of the blade as he said, "I don't do much else _except_ hurt." He continued cutting and said, "The devotion of those boys and the hope of getting on that ship... well, it's my first taste of anything besides suffering since you did this to me."

Jacob tried again. "I don't think she meant to lie. I think she meant something else by hurt... like when you use the wrong words accidentally."

"What did she mean, then?" he asked.

"That we're connected," Jacob said. He folded his fingers together, interlocking them as he said, "Our fate is joined. What happens to one of us, happens to the other."

His brother let out a sarcastic laugh and threw down another finished piece of leather. "That's crazy, Jacob," he said. "Unless you forgot to mentioned dying and turning to smoke."

"I wasn't being literal," Jacob said. "And I _was_ hurt by what happened to you... It hurts me that it happened... that I did it..."

His brother stood up and jutted the knife at Jacob. "Don't you dare pretend to know what I'm going through!"

Jacob stood as much to be ready to protect himself as out of frustration of being misunderstood. "I'm not," he said looking at the knife. Then he looked in his brother's eyes and said, "I'm just trying to explain."

His brother lowered his hand with the knife. "Then explain, Jacob. Why would she do it? Why just connect us but _say_ we couldn't hurt each other?"

"She was lonely," Jacob said. "I think she wanted us to always have each other." His brother's gaze slowly lost focus as he listened. "Maybe she thought that always being together would keep us from the kind of lonely hurt that she felt... so she made it that way. Maybe that's why when you died, you got stuck here and couldn't move on."

His brother's face twitched and he turned away from Jacob and sat. "You're just trying to blame her so you don't feel guilty," he mumbled.

That could be true, but Jacob didn't think so. As he turned to go his brother said, "Hey Jacob." When Jacob turned back, his said, "Apollo is the god of light and the sun. He's a musician and a healer and protector who wards off evil... seemed a good fit for you."

Despite his brother's sad smile at him, Jacob said, "But it's a lie. You're lying to those boys, just like you accuse mother of lying to us." His brother clenched his jaw and Jacob added, "What you're doing is wrong."

His brother's chin quivered slightly and he said, "I'm doing what I have to, Jacob."

Jacob turned without a word. He would do what he had to too.


	6. The Good Little Apprentices

Floating and clicking through the dark night air he had to rely on Remus and Darius to lead him to their camp. As they ran swiftly between the black tree forms and leaves, he couldn't deny it; neither were as bright as they had once been. And it was his fault.

The first time he'd come to the boys in his smoke form it was daylight and he could see clearly when they stepped into any shadow, that they glowed. It was the same with the other men he'd haunted as well. Unlike with Jacob, none flickered, and not even at their most innocent were the boys ever as bright as his brother, but there was light inside every human.

Until now he'd ignored that his encouraging their blood lust had done anything but make them want revenge on the Barbarians, but as he strained to follow their darkened souls, he was reminded of Jacob's accusation that what he was doing was wrong.

"Split!" Darius said.

Remus took off to his right as Darius ran to his left and after a few moments he too saw the fire ahead and the glowing lights of the men sleeping around it. How was it that those ruthless and cruel barbarians he'd judged as deserving death now outshone the boys he'd mentored?

As usual, he had ignored what he thought was Jacob's naive disapproval and yet, his brother had predicted this would happen.

The boys made their first death blows on those sleeping on the parameter and once he heard the shout of their success, the siren he made when he moved quickly as the smoke warned the others and brought the captain out of his tent. The brightness of the man shocked him at first, he'd grown so accustomed to the dim boys, but he didn't let it stop his determination.

He couldn't kill by striking someone directly, he had to take hold of them and allow the force of a blow to the head against the ground do the damage. It was quick and the man's glow left his body, as expected, but it didn't go out; it rose.

Stunned, he watched as the captian's soul light hovered slightly over its lifeless body. In it he saw something like a face, but featureless, more as the identifiable presence of the man. Moving closer to inspect the mystery, a trail of his smoke touched the dead body and he felt a rush of emotions and thoughts flood through him like a euphoric vision.

He could hear the boys fighting the men and shouting for his help, but he couldn't resist the temptation of this distraction. It was as if the essence of this man was his for the taking and he needed to take all that he could. As if it realized what was going to happen, the dead man's soul tried to escape but his smoke enveloped it suddenly and completely. Inside his smokey grip the soul cowered, unable to resist as he squeezed out his experiences into his own understanding like juice from a piece of fruit.

The rugged and mean exterior had cloaked a brave and honest man. The reasoning for his every decision, though harsh, was justified and through this man's perspective on his enemies he witnessed how even though Roman Soldiers had destroyed his village with it's apathetic greed, he'd spared the lives of the youngest boys by putting them to use, hoping to teach them their ways.

"Mars!" he heard behind him. "Help!" And then there was a scream of pain. It was Remus. Reluctantly he released the captain's soul and rushed to the wounded boy's aid. Charging the man who had stabbed his apprentice, he pushed the brute's body through the air into the pitch of the night and to his death against a large tree.

He left him and his dim soul behind, passing the terrified cook who was running away from the scene. He got back just in time to see Darius' shield ripped out of his hand by a man who had stuck his ax into it. Just as the man was going after the boy with his bare hands, he wrapped his icy smoke around the man's throat and lifted him into the air. This one he simply let drop to his death.

Darius then jumped to his feet, yelling and ran towards his brother with his spear.

Remus was on the other side of the camp with one hand pressed into his side, the other up at the helmsman who was about to attack him. He needed that man's knowledge to steer the boat back home and just as he was about to rush in front of Darius to drag the valuable man away to be detained, he heard a sound that filled him with dread.

Thunder.

Half way to his target it started pouring and not just a light sprinkle, but a wave of water sprays seen usually in mid-storm. Like a flame being extinguished, he lost his smoke form and dissipated to that formless existence of nothingness. It was so sudden that he couldn't even take his human illusion and continue the fight as a man. Unable to see the physical forms around him, he only could watch the spirits lights. Those that seemed to float he recognized as being of the dead, while the others, fastened to their bodies, moved more ridged, or didn't move at all.

The man he knew as the most valuable to him, the one he had warned the boys to spare at all cost, was now floating above the still light of his apprentices. As he watched the helmsman's spirit slowly leave this place, unstuck and free, his rage turned on the boys. Didn't they realize, being lost on a boat on the ocean would would be worse than stuck on an island? They couldn't leave now!

He had told them that a dozen times, and yet Darius had still struck down their only hope of navigating home.

As the rain let up, he began to hear the Darius weeping and then made out their forms. Remus was on the ground, laying still, the rain dropping lightly over him as his brother waited by his side, helpless to stop the bleeding. He looked around and shouted, "Mars! Where are you? Help us, he's dying!"

He couldn't move or respond, not that he wanted to. What use were they to him now? Pretending to care for them so he could train them and get them to do what he wanted had only been possible because he needed them. He had no use for followers on the island if he couldn't use them to get off of it.

Stuck in proximity to the scene in this form, he was unable to look away even though when the light of Remus, left him, lifting up above his body and over his brother. Darius knew the very moment and his wails for his brother filled the air and passed over him in vibrations of pain he couldn't escape. And then something else unexpected happen; Remus came to him. That boy who had just an hour ago sworn a blood oath to his god, to die in his service looked down on him and witnessed the impotence of the black smoke form against the rain.

Now, in death, the boy knew; what he had served was no god. It was a lie. By now the other lights had abandoned their bodies and left this place, but the boy, his soul face, filled with the scorn and grief of betrayal remained.

Darius wept until the rain stopped completely but with the ground still soaked and water drops falling from the trees above him, all he could do was take his human form.

"Where were you! Where did you go?" Darius demanded as soon as he saw him. All fear was gone "He's dead! Remus is DEAD! You were supposed to protect us... to rescue us..."

Looking at the other dead man next to him, he pointed and shouted, "You killed the helmsman! How are we supposed to cross the sea without someone who can read the charts?" Darius, stood up, stunned, and as he did he picked up his spear. "What use do I have for you if you don't obey me?"

"Don't listen to him, Darius" a voice whispered. Turning, he saw Remus, the light of him projecting his body form. "He's not Mars... he lied."

Darius looked at the dead body of his brother and then the ghost.

"I have to go, brother," Remus said. "I'll see you when your time comes."

After the image disappeared, Darius turned and lifted his hand with the spear. Instead of killing the boy, he found the air dry enough and merely turned to smoke and left the grim scene. He went directly to the shore to find the boat, but the cook had climbed into it and his dim light was out on the water, half way to the larger ship.

Taking his human form, he walked out on to the rock jetty and watched by the moonlight as the foolish man floated away, alone, to a ship he could never navigate on his own.

He didn't leave his perch all night, and in the bright morning light he frowned to see the ship that had remained anchored like a beacon of hope to him, began to sink. There was seemingly no reason for it to sink, but there was no real reason for it not to either, and he thought it was just as well.

When the larger ship was completely gone below the the water leaving the tiny boat bobbing alone, he heard among the sounds of the waves, footsteps approaching on the rocks.

He didn't have to look, he could tell it was Jacob. His brother came to his side and stood there watching the boat with him.

"Darius killed himself last night," Jacob said. His tone was informative, and with the expectation of a response.

"Good, saves me the trouble," he obliged.

When he could take the silence no longer, he turned to get Jacob's reaction. He expected to see judgment, anger, or maybe even condescension; that's what he deserved and that's what Jacob had given him when he'd killed their mother.

But what he saw was far worse. Sadness. He studied Jacob's expression, trying to find something else there, something he could react to and use as a means to defend himself. But there was nothing. His brother was hurt by what he had done, and didn't even feel the need to tell him.

He blinked and looked down, unable to meet Jacob's eyes. Without a word, his brother walked away back down the rock jetty and after he looked up to see Jacob reach the shore, he turned back to the water and saw that now, even the small boat was gone.

They were alone again.


	7. Jacob's Education

**Author's Note: Thanks again for the reviews and the encouragement! I will see what I can do about adding in some bigger bits from the other stories besides the small reference in this chapter. :)  
**

**...  
**

A hundred and forty years? How could it have been that long?

Scratching out his work on the cave floor, Jacob started over and recalculated the numbers. His mother had never taught him to read or count years, though he knew to track the seasons of harvest according to what she said was the 'winking of the moon'. It wasn't until Jacob had taken the records from the Barbarian captain's tent that he even realized words could be captured and shared with others.

His brother's mention of gods and empires had made Jacob aware of his ignorance, so he'd collected every written thing from the camp and hid them in his cave. Hopelessly unable to do anything with them, he'd gone to the structures and buildings around the island, scouring the images carved on the walls; believing if they had meaning too, it would be easier to learn because they were pictures. But for the longest time, Jacob couldn't decode one thing.

And then, he'd asked.

It was the first request he'd made purposefully to what he guessed was the light, and at first he thought nothing would happen. Then, the smaller pictures began to make sense, not as a literal word for each image, but as abstract symbols beneath and around the larger carvings. Slowly the groupings of symbols organized themselves into patterns in his mind that would repeat. _Those _were the words_._ When he'd learned enough to not to give up trying, he'd returned to his cave and used the images drawn with the Barbarian texts to begin to find patterns in their written language as well. He'd had very little success until a ship had crashed and spilled out barrels and crates of records, scrolls and books. So many washed ashore that he'd quickly learned the letters and numbers, each treasure helping him piece together a better code system in his mind.

But it wasn't until help from an unlikely source that Jacob had his major breakthrough.

...

"Those are mine," Jacob said, coming up behind his brother.

"I found them first," he said. He was sitting on the chest, looking over a scroll he must have taken out of it.

Jacob came right up to him and took it out of his hand. He wasn't going to share, not without knowing what it was. "Get up," he ordered.

His brother didn't argue and stood away from him and the chest.

"Want me to help you carry it back to your cave?" he asked.

"No," Jacob said. He opened the chest and tossed the scroll into it. There looked to be possibly hundreds mixed in with other tools and objects; his heart fluttered at what it might contain. He shut it and started to drag the chest behind him. It was considerably more heavy than he'd expected, but he could do it. It would just take time.

"I don't mind," his brother offered. "It's not like I have anything else to do." Jacob didn't answer. "Come on, Jacob. You going to stay mad forever?"

His tone made Jacob regret wanting to see his brother again. "Go away," Jacob said.

The words left him as if they were pushing his brother out of his sight. He'd learned that there were many things on the island he could control just by having a feeling towards it; rain, wind, animals, what ships could find the island and what they brought with them. Strangely, his brother was also somewhat under his control. But he couldn't make the chest lighter so he struggled with it. As he moved slowly through the sand, he saw out of the corner of his eye that his brother was obeying, but watching Jacob as he headed for the jungle.

He hadn't turned to smoke or run, he was hesitant, reluctant even. When he saw that his brother had gotten to the treeline and still wasn't leaving, Jacob stopped lugging the chest and sat on it. His brother stopped walking too.

Looking up at him he felt sorry for his brother. He didn't want to be angry forever. And if he really wanted his brother to go away, he would have had to go away.

"You sure?" his brother called out.

Jacob's shoulders fell slightly, he wasn't. He waved for him to come back and as if energized, his brother jogged to the beach.

Jacob stood and asked, "How are you?"

"You being polite, or do you really want to know?"

"I really want to know," Jacob said. "How bad has it been?"

His brother put his hands on his hips and licked his lips, thinking. Then he said, "Remember that time mother thought you were spying on her when she was washing in the river?" Jacob would have liked to have forgotten, it was the worst misunderstanding they'd ever had. He tilted his head and gave a nod.

"Remember how she made you stand facing the wall of the cave for, what was it... two days straight, without talking or eating, and you ended up wetting yours-"

"I remember," Jacob interrupted, annoyed now. "What about it?"

"I felt bad for you," his brother said. Jacob believed him; he remembered refusing the food slipped to him. "But it wasn't until my people punished me for stealing that I really understood what you went through."

"What did you steal?" Jacob asked.

"Food... I was hungry and didn't do enough work to earn it," he said.

"What was the punishment?"

"The leader slapped my knuckles bloody with a rod and made me pay it back..."

"That's terrible," Jacob said.

"That's not the point!" His brother sighed and said, "The point is, I realized, that as bad as the punishment was, getting caught was worse." Jacob frowned, uncertain he understood. "Because... people look at you differently afterward. They associate you with the crime. You lose their trust."

He looked down and added, "It took a long, long time for people to stop blaming me when things went missing... and even when I was an adult, some of the older people still called me parasite."

Jacob stared at his brother for long time. He didn't know what to say. He wasn't even sure what a parasite was, but he did know how awful it was to have lost his mother's trust and to have her always suspicious of him after that day. But the difference was, his brother _had_ stolen and his brother _had_ killed their mother, the Barbarians and Roman boys. Why should Jacob trust him?

When his brother finally looked at him, as if in pain he said, "You were right. What I did was wrong."

He waited a moment and then said, "Really?"

"Yeah," he said with a sigh. Jacob started to smile, feeling a warm satisfaction and hope that was quickly dampened. "But you should know, they went along with it. I didn't force them. And they would have all killed each other anyway. That's what people do, across the sea in those other empires, they're all at war, all the time. Even the best among them, people you'd think were good... give them a little power and they start abusing it. So all I did by trying to use them was speed up the time frame a little."

"I see," Jacob said, unsettled. He looked out at the sea, unable to argue because he didn't know about empires or people. All he had was a gut feeling that it didn't have to be that way.

"So how have you been, Jacob?" his brother asked as if anxious to move on. "Miss me at all?"

"I miss the you I remember," he said. "When we young, before we saw those hunters."

His brother wrapped his fingers around the chest ring and snapped, "Yeah? Well, I miss the me I was before I was dead." Then he hesitated. "Speaking of which, you want to do this the hard way, or should I just smoke it there?"

Jacob took hold of the chest ring on the other side and lifted it.

"Let's walk together," he said. "So we can talk."

His brother smirked and nodded. "Do you know anything about the ship that this came on?" he asked. "It wasn't that bad of a wreck, I expected some survivors to swim to shore."

"I think they died before they got here," Jacob said. He kept walking, aware of his brother's eyes on him.

"How do you know that?"

"There a picture of a person drawn with spots on their skin. Beneath it was the same word next to most of the names on a list that were crossed out..." He glanced at his brother and said, "There was an image of a skull on that list."

His brother seemed sufficiently impressed. "You're teaching yourself to read, aren't you? That's why you want all of these scrolls."

"Yes," Jacob said. "I want to learn the stories of gods and empires, and to know of the history of people who might visit the island. It could help me protect it."

"If I knew you were interested, I would have told you what I know," his brother said. "I still could, if you want."

"No," Jacob said. "I'd rather learn to read it for myself."

With a strange tone, his brother asked, "Why?"

"Because you lie," Jacob said.

Jacob stopped walking when he felt the tug of the ring in his hand as his brother stood still.

"I don't _always_ lie," he said. "And I don't lie to you... very much."

"How am I supposed to know the difference?" Jacob asked.

His brother didn't answer, just started walking again. He seemed bothered by the accusations but didn't offer any excuses.

When they got near the edge of the jungle before the rocky crater landscape, Jacob said, "This is far enough."

"Let me help the rest of the way," he said.

"I'm not ready for you to visit my home," Jacob said. His brother stood watching him go through the scrolls. There were several bags inside and when Jacob had filled them with scrolls, still having to leave quite a few, he closed the chest and covered it with a few branches to protect it from rain. "I trust you won't disturb this or take any?" he asked.

Offended his brother said, "I open up and tell you a story from my childhood and first chance you get..."

"I didn't mean it that way," Jacob said honestly. When his brother glared at him and crossed his arms, Jacob felt bad for him. "When I do learn," he said. "After I read what I have, I'll invite you in to tell me what you know, agreed?"

His brother nodded and then gestured to the bag of scrolls. "That you've got there, is mostly Latin," he said. "It's what we speak. If you want, I could teach you the sounds of the alphabet... that way you could sound out the words, it makes reading easier."

"You'd do that?" Jacob asked.

"It'll cost you," he said. "I want some of the scrolls... to give me something to do. I'll give them back, I'm just bored out of my mind."

...

Jacob had agreed and the entire world of words opened up to him. There were duplicate texts in both Latin and Greek in his new library and he was able to teach himself both languages because of that simple sheet of letters and sounds his brother had given him.

It was only recently that the calendar and star charts had become of interest to him. The eclipse he'd seen after he started counting years was the best standard he could find to compare against the ship's log that had washed ashore. But it wasn't until he'd been able to find a standard between this newer log and the Barbarian's calender that he could set a baseline going back to the last time he'd spoken to his brother.

It was right. A hundred and forty years had passed since the Barbarians had landed here.

Looking out of the cave at the ocean Jacob tried to comprehend it.

From what he understood of the genealogy scrolls, a man's life was a generation. When he had children, they became the next generation. Soon after a man's children had children, the man would die. Men didn't live for a hundred years, let alone a hundred forty. Jacob had no children, but he wasn't getting older either.

His mother had told him to do this job, "...for as long as you can."

Jacob and his brother had just endured over a century of silence and solitude. This was not how men lived in any of the stories he read. They didn't live this long and they didn't have these power; unless they were gods.

Picking up the Iliad again he opened it to the pages he had decoded and read the Greek words describing the sailor who came upon a woman who helped him and how he had blessed her. As he thought on their lives, the characters felt real and he could almost imagine what it was like to meet people who were kind and giving; people who reached out to strangers and who allowed their lives to become entangled until they were eternal friends. The stories helped him not feel so alone, and they gave him hope.

Not everyone was corruptible, his brother was wrong. He hadn't read everything, but it was time to invite him in.


	8. The Game, the Rules and the Scale

Climbing down the cliff ladder to get to Jacob's cave when his brother had a hidden back entrance was just another one of Jacob's annoying rules. He wouldn't get hurt if he fell, but it didn't mean it wasn't still scary based on his memory of falling. They had many other meeting places around the island, but this was only the third time he'd been permitted to visit Jacob's home. Never as smoke, he was told emphatically.

He'd given Jacob the Roman alphabet key hoping that once Jacob got a glimpse of what life was like off the island he'd either want to leave and see it for himself or certainly understand why someone else might want to. But ever since Jacob had started reading, instead of any empathy or compassion, he'd taken on an air of superiority, arguing his views with dismissive certainty. The last time they had met on the beach they had argued for days over multiple games of senet and meals he'd sometimes pretend to eat, just to annoy Jacob.

...

"Love always triumphs over war," was Jacob's main point. "Because even a victory is meaningless if there isn't someone to share it with."

"Victory is victory, Jacob."

"What was more important to Odysseus, conquering Troy or returning to Penelope afterward?"

"You can't be serious... so called _love_ is what started the Trojan war. Paris kidnapped Helen and look how many men were lost... and in the end, he was killed and Helen was hated. Love didn't win them anything. Plus, the real hero of that story, was Achilles. And when his mother told him he had a choice, to have a family and be forgotten or to go to war, die and yet be remembered forever, he didn't choose love, he chose glory."

"His loss," Jacob had said.

"How can you _say_ that?" he said with a laugh. "Achilles got exactly what he wanted! He's the most celebrated demi-god of all, Jacob!"

"He might be celebrated as a warrior, but look how he suffered. His greatest victory over Hector was only after he lost Patroclus. He was so devastated that he was never able to enjoy it. In fact, he even wept with Hector's father Priam over their loss. Commiserating with your enemy is proof that love was more important to them than war."

"No, wait, back up," he said to Jacob. "See, this is what I'm saying... Achilles love for Patroclus is what _drove_ him to kill Hector after Hector killed Patroclus! Love is a feeling, it's not good in and of itself and it can inspire someone to kill."

Jacob shook his head dismissively. "Achilles choose war in the first place. If he hadn't gone to war, he wouldn't have lost Patroclus. And he had many other chances to change his path too." Jacob liked to show off by referring directly to books he read and went on, "In Book 3 of Heroides, Bresies poem to Achilles, it's clear how much she loved him, love was greater than any war but he threw it away... it's his loss. I stand by that."

"So you admit, war triumphed over love in Achilles life?"

"No! You're twisting what I'm saying. Love was still proven more powerful because victory was empty without it. Achilles died without love and alone, despite his glory. Compare it to Odysseus who won the war, got the glory, but still needed to return home to Penelope before he could truly enjoy it."

"Where he murdered all 108 of her suitors!" he pointed out with a laugh. "Again, Jacob, love leads to killing...You lose again."

"You sound just like Apollo mocking Cupid," Jacob snapped. "But what happened there? He was unable to resist Cupid's arrow and fell for Daphne. Further proof that I'm right."

"How's that proof?" he asked.

"The arrow of love is stronger than the arrow of war," Jacob said, as if resting his case.

And that was when it hit him. Jacob didn't really understand what he was reading. "You do know that they're only stories, right Jacob?"

"What do you mean?"

Pausing he looked at his brother's innocent face and had to decide to tell him or not. It seemed cruel to tell him, but even more so not to. "The authors," he said carefully. "They make a lot of it up."

"I've read the same stories in many books by many authors," he said, dubious. "And Florus' Epitome of Roman History is almost exactly what your people told you happened and what you said you read from the soul of that Barbarian."

"Sometimes real history is mixed with myth. For instance, Achilles was probably a real warrior who fought when Troy fell, but I guarantee they exaggerated his abilities for the narrative."

"And Cupid and Apollo?" he asked. "Are you going to say they aren't real at all?"

"Do you honestly think there's an arrow that can make you fall in love?" he asked.

"So you don't believe there are really gods?"

Trying not to make it so harsh he said, "Maybe there are, Jacob, I don't know one way or another. But I've never seen one."

"You've seen me... we have powers. Why can't there be others like us somewhere?" he asked, but his voice was more unsure now.

"My point, Jacob, is that what happens doesn't just appear in written words on pages as facts, it was written there by authors. And authors are people and people can lie. You can't believe everything you read in books any more than you can believe everything _I_ say."

As Jacob began to comprehend the logic of it, he seemed to let go his resistance and slowly deflate. He sat there, looking out over the ocean, taking shallow breaths.

"I'm sorry Jacob... I thought you knew."

"How are you supposed to know what to believe, then?" he demanded. "If people write down lies... why read anything?"

"It's not all lies, and sometimes it's just their honest perspective. A lot of times they assume the reader knows they're... taking liberties for the sake of a good story or to make a point."

He tried to comprehend what his brother was going through as he silently struggled with his new paradigm. He imagined it was similar to how he felt when he began to realize their mother was crazy and a liar.

"You know what I do, Jacob? I pay attention to what I see in my own life and I do the best I can to filter what makes sense."

"All I see in my own life is the books... and you. Neither seem to be very reliable."

Jacob had said it with such self pity.

Feeling a bit defensive he didn't hold back as he responded, "And that is why I'm always going to have an advantage when it comes to understanding these things, Jacob. I've lived with people. I've been in love and I know how empty and painful it is. Women are manipulative and men are greedy. I've seen people fight and kill each other, and I've been a part of it. From my experience, the choice that Achilles had doesn't even matter because whether you live for love or glory, it always ends the same."

...

Jacob had gotten up and left. It was the last word they said on it for several months until Jacob invited him here again. He was anxious to see what Jacob had come up with if he couldn't rely on quoting his books for proof anymore.

When he walked in, he noticed sitting on top of the table there was something new. He'd seen a picture of something similar in one of the books Jacob had lent him and he knew it was used for weights and measures when men traded goods, but he couldn't imagine why Jacob would have use for it.

"What's the scale for?"

"You'll see," Jacob said as he rummaged through his shelf. "Please, have a seat." He sat with Jacob's back to him feeling that familiar envy rising up again. Sometimes he could see Jacob's glow even with his human eyes and he cleared his throat to indicate his brother was being rude. "I'll be right with you," was all Jacob said.

Shaking his head he looked out over the water. He hadn't seen it before when he was coming here, but there, clear as ever, was a beautiful sight on the water. He stood, his mouth open, walking towards the entrance.

"Where are you going?," Jacob said.

"There's a ship," he said.

"It isn't going anywhere until we're done."

Turning around he saw Jacob take his seat, two rocks in hand and a small smile on his face. Coming back before he was ordered to, he sat and smirked at Jacob. "You're up to something, aren't you?" he asked.

Jacob couldn't hide it, his face was glowing with anticipation. "Do you remember when you first found the senet game and you made up the rules?"

"Yeah, why?"

Jacob smiled. "It's my turn."

He was afraid something like this would happen. He'd gone along with most of what Jacob wanted as if willingly, but it was just pretense. He knew he had to or face Jacob telling him to with words that weighed on him until he obeyed. And now he was going to have to play a game? A Jacob invented game even... who knew how silly it would be?

"Do I have choice," he asked more sharply than he usually did. "Or are you going to order me like I was some jester entertaining you?"

Jacob frowned and looked out at the ship. "You have choice, but before you decide you should know, _they're_ part of the game."

That was unexpected. He looked out and then back at Jacob. "How so?"

"I've been thinking of what you said about you having an advantage, and I agree. So, when I saw this new ship coming I had an idea. if we can't know which stories are true and which are lies, then why not watch real people in living stories?" He crossed his arms on the table and leaned on them, looking out at the ship. "The gods on Mt. Olympus used humanity to work out their issues. Seems like a fair way for you and I to work out ours."

It was chilling to think Jacob could devise such a scheme, especially since he had been the one to point out impersonating a god was wrong, or was it just the war part he didn't like?

He thought to once more become his brother's teacher and point out the hypocrisy, but there was too much to gain from Jacob's ignorance this time. If more people came to the island, he might have another chance to leave. And even if that took a while, living with people again certainly could be amusing with his new abilities.

"Alright, what's the object of the game?"

"We watch them, live with them and then use what we learn in our discussions until we agree who's right."

He let out a laugh and said, "You're serious aren't you?" Jacob nodded, probably not even realizing he could never prove a negative. He could deny Jacob the victory concession for as long as he wanted, but once they started killing each other, he'd win. With a grin he asked, "Are there rules?"

"You can't lie to them." He closed his eyes and shook his head as Jacob went on. "And you can't hurt or kill them."

"Jacob..."

"And you can't scare them into hurting and killing each other. I don't want us to be like cupid either and make them do something to prove our point so they have to have a fair choice between..." He held up a white rock in one hand and a black rock in the other as he said, "Good or evil... love or hate... peace or war. Just like Achilles had a choice between family or glory." He lowered his hands with the rocks and waited for a reaction.

"I can't lie and I can't scare them?" he asked, indignant. "I'm smoke, Jacob. And I can't be killed. As soon as I tell them the truth, I scare them."

"I don't think you give people enough credit," Jacob said.

He sighed and looked away. They could argue that point all night too, but really, it didn't matter. Getting the people here was the point, and since he couldn't lose no matter what the rules were, he couldn't think of a serious objection.

As he thought on it, he commented sardonically, "I guess you made rules you would follow anyway... that's convenient."

"Well," Jacob said. "There is something else." He then lifted the black rock and held it above one side of the scale and then took a white rock and did the same on the other side. Slowly, he lowered the white one and the scale tipped as he let go of it. "This is how we are right now. I hold all the power over you." He glared at Jacob, not liking to hear it spoken out loud. "Which hardly seems fair," Jacob admitted. "And I can tell you hate it... So, if you agree to the rules, this is how we'll play." He set the black rock down on the other scale.

It teetered a bit at first, but slowly it became clear that there was a balance. He met Jacob's eyes with anticipation.

"I'm offering you a chance to be an equal with me for the duration of the game... meaning, so long as you abide by my rules, I won't order you to come and go. My home is still off limits, and you can establish a home for yourself where I won't go. But you can go anywhere else you want on the island, same as me. I won't summon you any more than you can summon me. And besides what I've outlined here, I can't tell you what to do either." Jacob pointed at him and said, "But, as soon as you break one of my rules, the game is over and I can do whatever I want to you."

He eyed the the scales and only had to think about it for a second. "You're on."


	9. The Temples

**Author Notes: Thank you so much for the reviews! Every word means so much and reminds me of why I continue to share!  
**

**This chapter took me longer than expected because we've had workers in our house every day this week and I can't write with all the construction noise... I've also had to change the rating of the story because of the last few paragraphs. I don't want to spoil it, but I think I need to give warning to those who get queasy, it isn't pretty. I felt it was necessary for Jacob's development and explanation for where the 'rules' need to go. **

**With Christmas coming, I'm not sure how far I'll get on the next chapter - but it's nearly all in my mind ready to go, so that's a good sign!**

...

"Haven't talked to them yet, have you?" his brother asked as he sat next to Jacob on the ridge.

"I will," Jacob said. "In time."

"They're building right where my people were burned to death. Don't you think that's odd?"

Jacob didn't like to be reminded of what their mother had done and his brother knew it. But the truth was, he had noticed. "I suppose," he quipped, "Why do you think they picked it?"

"I don't know," his brother said, and then added in a distant voice, "It's like they knew or something..." Jacob couldn't imagine how they would know, he and his brother had cleared away all traces of the village. His brother tilted his head and looked at Jacob as he asked, "What do you think they're building?"

Jacob glanced at them and said, "The Egyptians built tombs that shape for their kings. It could be where they're going to bury people."

"The pyramids were for kings and much bigger, Jacob, and these aren't Egyptians. Besides, why would they build a tomb over the healing spring?"

Jacob shook his head, truly curious.

"I think they're temples," his brother suggested.

Jacob hadn't seen any such temple shapes in the scrolls, and asked, "Why do you think that?"

"A hunch," his brother said.

"Whatever they are, they're beautiful," Jacob said. He couldn't help but feel proud of the people and their accomplishment and in only a couple of years time! "It's amazing what can be done when people work together well."

He'd meant it as a compliment to these people, but his brother turned and just by the look on his face Jacob could see he'd taken it as an insult to his own people.

"Whatever they're building, they're bad, Jacob. And I don't mean typical bad, I mean bad beyond anything I've seen before."

Jacob scoffed, it went against everything he'd seen so far. "You think everyone's bad it's like you see everything through some sort of..." He waved his hand in front of his face, trying to explain, "fog or smoke screen. It distorts what's really there into something darker."

"A smoke screen?" his brother asked. "Nice."

"An unfortunate choice of metaphor," he said. His brother didn't seem to buy it. "Let's talk facts," Jacob tried again. "There's virtually no crime to indicate they're bad. There haven't been any murders or even stealing, from what I've seen. They work steadily and they share their food and everything they make. What's so bad about that?"

"Those are good habits, not virtues," his brother said. "I thought we agreed that for people to be good, they had to be virtuous?"

After arguing about the definitions they would use, Jacob had prescribed the reading of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for them to refer to in debates. He'd only read a few chapters of it himself but after scanning over the first scroll his brother had given his agreement. As the people had gotten settled, the two of them spent a month translating the Greek to Latin and were still trading the chapters back and forth as they read them.

"Habit is what develops virtue," Jacob argued.

"There can be no virtue without freedom to choose and most of these people are slaves. So any good they do, or bad they don't do, can't be attributed to them, but to the whip their master holds."

Jacob found himself unable to argue that point. "The leaders," he said, "They treat the slaves well, at least. They have a choice, so there's still a potential of virtue there. Either way, there's no proof they're bad just because there's no proof they're virtuous."

"Virtue is supposed to bring happiness," his brother said. "These people are full of fear, especially the leaders."

His brother insisted he read emotions better than Jacob and looking down he saw two men walking together, smiling as they talked. To Jacob they appeared to have no fear at all. But people could fake how they felt as easily as they spoke lies.

"And to be honest," his brother continued, "it's not what I've seen that has me convinced they're bad, it's what I haven't seen."

That got Jacob's attention and he looked up into his brother's eyes. "At night, I can't see them. Well, the younger children I can see clearly, and some of the older children have a light glow, but the priest and the leaders; they're dark almost to the point of invisible, even when I'm right next to them."

"That can't be, there's a light inside of everyone," Jacob said.

"They're different," he said.

Jacob sighed and looked back down. His brother could be lying. When making his rules he'd neglected to include himself among those his brother couldn't lie to and once his brother agreed, he wouldn't add it to the list. Jacob didn't want to go back on his word, so he was trying to look at it as a way for him to get better at truth detection.

"I wanted to ask you something," his brother said. "About the rules to the game..." Jacob looked at him."If they start acting out the darkness I see in them, is there any chance you'd let me step in before they did something really terrible?"

"Why would you want to stop them when it would prove you right?"

"I'm not worried about being right here, Jacob. I know I am. What I'm worried about is what's going to happen to you when you see what they're capable of."

Chuckling nervously Jacob asked, "What's going to happen to me?"

"Chapter nine, verse nine, paragraph four: 'a good man delights in virtuous actions and is vexed at vicious ones'." Jacob looked away in thought. His brother wasn't as good at memorizing as Jacob and only recalled those things that he'd thought about a lot. "You are a very good man, Jacob," he went on. "And these people are very, very vicious."

"So you say," Jacob said.

"If I'm right, and I am, well, let's just say it'd be worse for you than learning what fiction is... or that mom was insane... or that you did this to me."

Jacob glared at him. He hated to be reminded of his past naivety.

"You didn't let me add rules, why now do you all of a sudden think I'll change them for you?"

"You tricked me into agree," he said. Jacob rolled his eyes. "Like Aristotle says in Chapter... oh... I forget. But he says, if a man does bad to save his family, it's hard to consider him a bad man... do you remember that?"

"Yes," Jacob said begrudgingly.

"So I shouldn't have been made to agree to your rules, just so I could become free. It wasn't really my choice. You forced it on me."

He had a point, but it was the only way Jacob could think of to get his brother to agree. Jacob hadn't told his brother that he was the one bringing people, and he didn't want to, so he couldn't point out that if Jacob let him hurt people, Jacob would be responsible for whatever his brother choose to do.

"No," Jacob said, "I'm not going to change the rules."

"Fine. But we should have a signal to suspend the game at least. Just in case... and only if you think it's necessary."

"No!" Jacob said. "It doesn't work that way. The game continues until you break a rule or one of us wins. And I don't want you hurting, killing or lying to people regardless. If they are bad, let them show it honestly. Whatever happens to me, happens. I'd rather that then be responsible for permitting you to hurt them when I can stop it."

His brother's face tensed as he said, "Well I don't want to lose my freedom, Jacob, so I'm not going to step in unless you guarantee I get to keep it if I do. So let it be as you said, whatever happens to these people, happens. And because I warned you, now what they do is on you. But you will change your mind Jacob, and I'll be waiting."

Jacob looked down at them and felt ill. As his brother started to get up, a thought occurred to him. "Do you think it would be better if we just asked them to leave and called it a draw? Nobody wins?"

His brother paused and said, "That would be acceptable."

Jacob was surprised. His brother sat back down, expecting Jacob to go through with that plan. He saw that same excited look on his brother's face that had been there when he was working on the shields. "You would try to go with them!" Jacob accused.

His brother seemed surprised by that, but he was good at faking his emotions, so Jacob couldn't tell. "No, Jacob. Even if these people asked me... I wouldn't go with them. I don't trust them." He lifted his brows and said, "That's how bad they are. I'd be willing to stay on this island longer just to avoid them."

Jacob looked back down at them and found it hard to believe. Then, one of the two men he'd seen smiling earlier, had turned on a teenager and was dumping out a basket of straw he had collected; correcting him in a stern voice. Jacob witnessed the boy cowering and scraping up the straw with his fingers as he nodded. The man looked very angry, not fearful. Just as their mother would be when either of them used to misbehave.

"You're lying," Jacob said. He looked back and to his amazement, his brother was gone. Jacob looked around, feeling both foolish for believing anything his brother said and fearful that maybe this time, he wasn't lying.

...

When Jacob decided he was ready to talk to one of the people, he choose a boy who was one of six who worked for the priest. He was cautious to approach him in private and after a few conversations, Jacob still wasn't sure about his brother's accusations.

"Your brother's temple dedication is tonight, are you coming, Jacob?" Matsu asked excitedly, the fourth time they spoke.

"I'll watch," Jacob said as they walked along the river. It was the boys duty to collect the healing herbs that grew here and though a servant, he was so trusted to do his job that he often came unsupervised.

As the boy worked, Jacob lifted water in his hands and felt saddened. This river was not nearly as powerful. He'd lost access to the best healing spring on the island because it was now covered by a temple Matsu said they dedicated to the 'white brother' Quetzalcoatl.

Matsu had told him the people noticed Jacob and his brother and had sent out many hunting parties looking for them. Unable to find them, they decided they were not men, but spirits. The priest had then said he'd seen black smoke and had decided they were gods.

Jacob had corrected the boy, but had also sworn him to secrecy so they could continue speaking without his elders interfering. He'd learned so much from Matsu, and it was good because they had no scrolls or written words to share with Jacob. Being the servant of the priest, Matsu knew most of their history and beliefs and Jacob felt he was only beginning to learn everything about them.

"I really wish you would come," Matsu said. "We will have music and plenty of food. You have been good to our crops this year."

"It's not me," Jacob reminded him standing up.

"Your island," the boy said as if humoring him. He put cloves in his small pouch and added, "You do bring the rains, you've admitted to that."

"Alright, you got me there," Jacob conceded. Matsu smiled at him and the two of them headed back down the stream. He had made it rain when Matsu had said the people were wondering why it hadn't rained for over a month. He'd been holding it back because he was looking to talk to his brother, and the rain usually made him hide. Now he didn't do anything with the weather; not wanting the people to have reason to offer gifts as Matsu said they wanted.

"Do you wish you were free?" Jacob asked him. Matsu didn't seem to understand. The closest word Jacob could find to the Latin concept of freedom of choice was a word they used for decision, so he qualified it. "Do you wish you could do as you wanted and not as you were told?"

"No," Matsu said. "The laws are good. In lands where they are not obeyed there is chaos and disorder. People go hungry and there is much misery. We are much happier than they are."

It was all the validation Jacob needed. "Thank you, Matsu. And... today you may tell your priest you have been talking with me." The boys face paled slightly and he shook his head. "What's wrong?" Jacob asked.

"Remember I told you our laws, Do not steal, Do not lie, Do not be lazy. I have been lying each time I return to the priest saying I saw no one... if I tell the truth now, I'll be punished." He was trembling as he said it.

"Then don't tell. I don't want you to be punished for something I told you to do," Jacob said. The boy nodded, still unsure of himself as they parted. "I will be there tonight," Jacob said. "I will introduce myself to the priest."

Matsu was immediately revived of his youthful joy. "You will be so pleased! If your brother can come it will mean so much to the people... it is for him..."

"I can't make him come. If he comes, he comes."

The boy nodded and took off running for the temple over the spring.

...

That night, Jacob attempted to dress as the people did. He knew they preferred bright colors, and he wanted to get away from their idea that he was this white god they worshiped. So he found feathers and dipped them in dye, making for himself a necklace like the people wore. He was hoping to also get a closer look at the tapestries they wove, finding the patterns and images on them to be much more difficult than the straight lines of color his mother had taught him to do.

When he first approached the gathering, the people who saw him stood in awe, and then the woman closest to him let out a blood curdling scream and the other women with her shrank from him and began to scream as well. One fell to the ground and was drug away by others. Two men, dropped to their knees, their hands high and began to chant. When others saw them, they did the same.

They called him Quetzalcoatl and thanked him for the harvest of corn. Matsu had told Jacob some people had seen him in their fields, but he was just curious for the type of food they had brought to the island. They kept strict records with colored knots in string so he didn't dare take anything. He still didn't know what it tasted like and was looking forward to possibly being invited to try it tonight.

"I'm not here to hurt anyone," he said. "Please, get up. I've come for the dedication of the temple. I only want to watch."

From the temple a group came and they too, upon seeing him, began to bow. He raised his hands and started to tell them he wasn't a god, and they all screamed and fell on their faces. They wouldn't have heard a word he said if he had tried. Discouraged, Jacob continued walking through them, hoping to come across someone who would stand and talk to him.

And that's when he saw, the priest.

His features were stern and his eyes did look very dark. He too was wearing feathers, only they were dyed many colors and had various bones dangling with them; much more ornate and beautiful than Jacob's feeble attempts.

"Are you angry that we have not chosen your temple to dedicate first?" the priest asked.

"No," Jacob said with a smile. "I come to celebrate with you. I love my brother and both temples are beautiful. May I join your ceremony?" Just as he asked it, Jacob noticed Matsu was among those painted and dressed up following the priest. Try as he might, he couldn't help but look at him.

"You, boy," the priest said to him. "He's chosen you, lead him to the alter."

Matsu hesitated slightly and the priest turned and struck him.

"Stop!" Jacob shouted. "Do not harm him."

The priest's smile went wicked and Jacob had a strange feeling. "As you wish. I will keep him unspoiled." He turned to Matsu and said, "Lead him."

Matsu came before Jacob and said, "Please, follow me, Quetzalcoatl."

"You know that's..." he started, but didn't want to get the boy in more trouble. He nodded and decided to clear it up later.

Matsu led him through to the top of the temple, past the torches and musicians. It was festive and there were tables full of food. The smell of the feast made Jacob's stomach growl and he joked with his escort, "I'm getting hungry, when do we eat?"

"After the sacrifice, Quetzalcoatl."

They had just reached the top most step and glancing behind him, Jacob was struck with how beautiful the torches and lanterns were in the dark of the night. They were waving and the chanting and music filled the air. He'd never heard so many instruments playing at once and felt a growing emotion in his heart for these people. He glanced at his friend and said, "I'm glad it's you here with me," he said. "You were right, your people are..." But there were tears in the boys eyes. "What's wrong?" Jacob asked.

"I'm afraid," the boy said.

"Why?" Jacob asked.

Before the boy responded, the priest came up to Jacob and looked him in the eyes.

"I'm not Quetzalcoatl," Jacob said. "I'm just a man who lives on this island and wants to learn about your people."

The priest smirked. "Don't you think I know that?" he hissed. The priest lifted a hand and said, "Seize him."

Jacob was surrounded by the priest's older servants who grabbed his arms and drug him up onto the alter. Stunned, Jacob struggled only in slight confusion, looking at Matsu who would not meet his eyes.

The voices of the people below and their instruments grew louder. The priest came before them and lifted his arms. The song changed to something much more eerie and Jacob looked at one of the men holding him, much shorter than himself and said, "Let me go, and I won't hurt you."

"Though I die, I won't let you go," the man said.

Jacob pulled at half his strength to test them as he watched Matsu follow the gesture of the priest and come forward. Curious, Jacob stopped struggling until he saw the boy lay down on a stone table there. A chill went through him as he saw the knife over the child.

"No," he said. "I'm not Quetzalcoatl," he told the men holding him, "This is a mistake..."

With a single shove, Jacob pushed the two men off of him but was then sprung upon by four, and unable to get to the boy before he saw the knife plunge into his chest.

Jacob's scream was drowned out by the shouts and calls around and below them and he once more threw off his captors. He thought he could heal Matsu, and save him, until he saw lifted above the head of the priest, a bloody, dripping piece of flesh, still pounding as hard as what Jacob felt in his own chest. He was so stunned he could only let his eyes fall to the boy, who just now closed his eyes in a shudder of death.

Jacob was seized upon again, this time, all six of the guards grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground, painfully kneeling on his wrists, shins, and gut and with daggers now to his throat and sides. Laying on his back he saw the heart above his face and felt the dripping of the warm blood on his face.

He willed thunder around them and it shook the entire scene, only seeming to inflame the people more. When he felt a strong grip on his chin, opening his mouth, Jacob held back the rain he'd called and cried out, "Brother!"

As if he'd been waiting, the black smoke came with a scream out of the night air and plunged the priest, his bloody prize and all backward off the temple and into the crowd below. The musician's stopped playing suddenly and the singing turned to screams that mixed with the clicking and whining of their new terror. The men who had been holding Jacob down fled when the smoke came back and took one of them. Laying still, unable to comprehend how he could not have ever suspected this, Jacob felt as if his own heart had been ripped out. He wept, listening to the horrified voices below and sounds of what he guessed were the murders he'd given his brother permission to commit. Turning his head he saw beside him, Matsu's corpse, his red blood pooling around his body. Never had he felt such disgust and anguish.

This was his fault, he had been warned him.


	10. Change of Rules

He dropped the priest in the crowd with a satisfactory 'splat', causing his ignorant followers to cower and shudder around him.

Then he moved as smoke through them, knocking off masks, keeping in mind those he needed to destroy and crushing the darkest against their own stone walls or skewering them on tree limbs. He encouraged the lower classes to run off with their children by only flying near them for a good scare. To his disgust, many evil ones fled after them to strike them down for running and he picked them off to try to stop the slaughter.

When he heard blood curdling screams, he returned to where the devout were gathering and saw they were hastily preparing another sacrifice. Disgusted that it was too late to rescue the young woman, he swooped down, wrenched her from their grasp and put her out of her pain against a wall. When he turned on the monsters who had been carving her, he noticed his vision was growing fuzzier. Glancing around in the darkness, he also saw people were starting to stumble, and the stone steps of the temple were crumbling with a rumbling noise. The ground was shaking!

Concerned, he moved to the top of the temple where he saw Jacob, his fists clenched and his face contorted with emotions. The people below struggled to run towards the jungle and when Jacob shouted after them, a crevice opened and swallowed most of them. Then with a single push, Jacob shoved the gigantic stone alter the boy was resting on and sent it toppling over the ledge, down the broken steps where it hit a pillar, bringing what was left of the structure on anyone near it.

And he thought his brother's temper was frightening with only mortal strength!

In genuine fear of what Jacob might decide or accidentally do to him, he flew away as fast as he could, almost feeling sorry for those he'd left behind.

...

It was well into the next day before he felt safe to return only to find his temple was demolished into piles of rubble. Most of the bodies were likely buried but there were some dead scattered among the smoking debris and he could see a few souls, obviously still confused on how to escape the confines of this existence.

He wasn't interested.

Last night he'd been able to seize a few wandering around, but they were dull and tasteless as sand compared to the Barbarian captain's vitality. The memory of that man's essence was more like cool, fresh fruit on a hot day and he was beginning to realize it was the light within him that must have made the difference.

Once he found Jacob, he reluctantly took his human form and climbed over the the collapsed stones to where he was laying in the rubble. He wondered how his brother had survived this disaster and couldn't imagine what he was going trough.

He walked up and squatted down beside him.

"Jacob..."

"Go away!" he wept and turned his face the other direction.

Instantly he realized there was no urgency in him to obey the command. As a test, he remained and said, "It's over, let's leave this place."

Jacob just laid there, and burying his face into the crook of his arm he asked, "Are they _all_ dead?"

"Most of them," he said. "There's a dozen or so from the lowest classes that survived their master's swords... but I think even they are turning on each other." Shouts in the distance followed by screams verified his prediction. It was macabre and when he heard Jacob crying, he honestly felt for him.

"I should have listened to you," Jacob moaned.

"Yeah, you should of," he said.

Jacob turned his head towards him, opened his eyes and glared. "If you didn't lie so much, I wouldn't have to pick and choose what to believe."

He couldn't argue with that, but didn't like to be blamed.

"I'm sorry," he snapped. "I tried." When Jacob started to tear up again, he softened again.

As he reached down and took the feather necklace off of Jacob and tossed it aside, Jacob said, "I suppose you won."

"Yeah, well, winning doesn't feel as good as I thought it would," he said. He stood and without thinking, stretched his hand out to Jacob.

Jacob took it and when their hands touched, it was a strange sensation. From Jacob's expression, he must have felt it too. After all these years in this body, was this really the first time they had actually touched? When he pulled and helped Jacob stand, he felt the solidness of the action, but it was as if his brother was weightless. They stared, eye to eye at each other, both curious.

Jacob looked at their clasped hands and squeezed. His hand dissolved to smoke until Jacob released the pressure and it reformed. It didn't hurt; he could barely feel it. Experimenting, he did the same and this time Jacob's hand still remained, but his own disappeared again until he relaxed and their two hands appeared as natural as ever.

With a deep breath, Jacob pulled his hand away. It must have been as awkward for Jacob as it was for him to be reminded of what he was.

"I need some time alone," Jacob said, looking around. Again, it wasn't a command and he felt as if he could disobey and stay, but when Jacob turned his serious gaze on him, he nodded, turned to smoke and left him.

...

The people left were void of any independence or self-reliance. Without their leaders to make decisions for them and organize their work, they were lost and once they had either all been murdered or died of starvation or the elements, he approached Jacob again.

"The game's over," his brother said to him without even looking up.

"What do you mean?" he asked, sitting in the shade beside where Jacob was picking flax. "I thought you just suspended it... so I could rescue you." Jacob stopped his work and looked annoyed. They weren't going to kill him, just make him drink the blood, but Jacob didn't argue, just shook his head and went back to work.

"I didn't suspend the game," Jacob clarified, "I changed the rules."

"Why don't you just change them back?" he asked.

"I can't," Jacob said, tying up the flax for carrying. "I swore to the Light that if I ever changed a rule, I wouldn't change it back."

Astonished he asked, "Why would you do that?"

"I didn't trust myself," Jacob said. "And I don't trust you either... so, I don't want to play anymore."

"You concede then?" he said. "People are bad."

"No. Some of the people, like Matsu, had potential, but their leaders were bad. The Barbarians and your people and those in the scrolls had good in them too. Eventually you would have had to admit it." As he lifted the flax bundles over his shoulder he said, "The problem is, with the new rules, you'll just kill all the good people before they can prove anything and you'll always win. So now I have to keep people from coming to the island..." He looked at him and said condescendingly, "...in order to protect them from you."

He didn't doubt Jacob could keep people from the island, but if there were no more boats coming, that meant he could never leave. He stood and plead his case, "You killed more of those people than I did, Jacob... and they were more of a danger to themselves than either of us were to them." Jacob didn't look convinced. "Keeping people from the island isn't going to save them from themselves. There's more war out there than there ever will be here."

Jacob shrugged and said, "I have no control of what happens out there, just what happens here."

Infuriated he said, "Bringing people to the island could be considered an escape for them from the wars, misery and deaths of the outside world." He raised his brows as Jacob thought on that. "And keeping good people away robs them of a chance to prove you right, and a peaceful existence here... didn't we live peacefully before mother killed my people?"

At first Jacob's glare was dark but he seemed to push his feelings down. And then asked, "Will you swear, if I bring people to the island that you'll only kill the really bad ones? Like the dark priest?"

It felt like a trap. "How will you know if they're really bad or not, Jacob? You thought these people were good."

"Swear to the Light, not me," Jacob said. "It will hold you to your promise."

The way his brother spoke of the light was unsettling, could it really hold him to his word? Despite how much more he enjoyed reading their souls, he couldn't imagine himself wanting to actually kill good people... but still, he didn't like to limit his options. Turning it around gave him wiggle room and he said, "Fine, I will only kill the worst of the people who come."

Jacob didn't buy it. "No, swear not to kill anyone who isn't as bad as that priest... or the others who were hurting that girl."

Jacob was getting smarter, but he didn't realize those preparing the second sacrifice were more ignorant than evil. "Alright, fine. As you say, I won't kill anyone who isn't as dark or darker than they were."

With a smile and a nod, Jacob began walking back to his cave.

"You ever going to move out of there?" he asked. Jacob stopped in his tracks and looked back. "They built a temple for you and it's still standing. All that's left of mine is a stone bench..."

Jacob's lack of response to that was eerie. He turned and as he kept walking he said, "I'll think about it."

...

The next boats coming so soon and being exactly what Jacob was looking for was too perfect and he wondered, if Jacob could decide _who_ to bring as well. He let it go without accusing him of cheating because he didn't care if he lost, so long as he could leave, and equally because it was a culture they both were curious about: Egyptians.

After watching and reading several of them he conceded that their leaders were not bad, but what he didn't tell Jacob was that Imhotisis was not just a good leader, she was such a beautiful and strong queen that her people declared behind her back that she was Isis personified. When he read her, he unfortunately saw no such delusions in her own mind, but her acceptance of the people's claim gave him something to work with; she would have to put that mantle aside to be _truly_ good, and when she did, the people would rebel. And when they did, and Jacob sent them away, he'd go with them. That was his plan, anyway.

Jacob wasn't himself yet. Instead of listening among the trees and watching them close as he had done up until the last incident, he instead sat high on the cliffs those first few months, and spent most of his time weaving a red tapestry, he said was his way of mourning his mistakes with the Incas. But he did ask about them when they met in his cave.

"They haven't built anything substantial because the leaders haven't decided to make the island their home," he told Jacob. "They're in some sort of... transition mode, as if this is just a stop they're making. They're gathering food, making supplies and maintaining their boats. If you keep stalling, Jacob, they could leave before you even get a chance to talk with them."

Jacob was sipping a cup of the tea made from a mix of herbs the people had laid out for the spirit of Anubis, as they called his smoke form. He had no use for it.

"How is it?" he asked.

"It's very good," Jacob said. "Anise or Fennel seed... very strong and sweet."

"You want me to thank them for you, or you want to do it?"

The twinge of fear that manifest itself in Jacob's expression told him his brother still hadn't recovered. He was losing his patience.

"They're not that bad, Jacob, you'd like them."

"So you say."

"When was the last time I lied to you?" he asked.

"I don't know, that's the problem," Jacob said.

"I wouldn't say people were good when they're not," he said.

"Would you say someone is dark when they aren't?" Jacob asked.

Lightly bouncing his head he admitted, "Maybe I stretched it a little when I said all the Inca's were dark but the children... but I was making a case to get you to..."

"So we _did_ kill innocent people?" Jacob interrupted, angry.

"Wait.. no. They had light in them, but they were not innocent. Their thinking was... twisted. What they were doing to that girl would have_ turned _them dark... they're all better off dead."

Jacob took a breath and then asked, "How I'm supposed to believe any of _that's_ true? You want to win, so you're going to say everyone is bad."

"I'm saying the Egyptians are good, though!"

"You could be saying these Egyptians are good when they're not."

"Why would I do that?" he growled in frustration.

Jacob thought about it for a minute and then looked away and said softly, "I don't know."

"Well, I have no idea how to gain your trust back."

After a long pause, Jacob said, "You could let me make a new rule."

"What do you mean, _let _you?" he asked. "You changed the rules last time without asking me."

"No, you asked me first for new rules and I only agreed to it after they hurt Matsu. I set the game up so that if one of us asks for a rule change, it doesn't happen until the other agrees. And once we change it, we can't change it back. It was the only way to make it fair for both of us."

Impressed he asked, "Alright, what's the new rule?"

"That you can't lie to me."

The words felt as if they were gripping his insides with claws. "No."

"Then I'll never believe a word you say," Jacob said, setting the cup down hard.

"I'm the one who talked you into continuing playing, Jacob," he said gesturing to himself. "Why would I do that if I didn't really want to see who's right?"

"I'm sure you have your reasons," Jacob said. "Maybe the game is... maybe _I'm_ just a means to an end."

"That really hurts, Jacob. Seriously." And it did, despite the fact that Jacob was right. He wanted to leave the island, but he still didn't like that he had squandered the trust between them. As kids they were so close that just a kind word between them could win Jacob's trust back after he'd lied, or get him to forgive Jacob's temper; he never would have guessed there could be this kind of chasm between them.

Glaring at him through the scales Jacob said, "I wonder if you can still feel hurt in that form or if you're just mimicking emotions to make me feel sorry for you so I'll do what you..."

"Fine! I won't lie to you. I agree to the new rule." As the promise gripped him, he lashed out at the scale, knocking the black rock across the cave. He crossed his own arms and Jacob sat up. "But it has to be an absolute, intentional lie, I don't get punished just because you or one of them makes an assumption, misunderstands something or don't agree with me."

Jacob studied his face for a moment and then said, "That's acceptable."

He looked out of the cave, and Jacob fetched the black rock and reset the scale.

"Now," Jacob said, sitting down. "It feels like we're even again."

"Not to me," he said. "This is like if I said you can't move through my set pawn in senet but I could move through yours..."

Jacob wasn't buying it. "You know I can't lie well... and if you're so much smarter than I am, you shouldn't _have_ to lie to win."

It wasn't much solace, but it was true. And he was pouting. He looked back at Jacob out of the corner of his eye and the smile on his brother's face made him warm up again. Earning back some of the trust made them feel like brothers again. Swallowing didn't do anything for the lump he felt in his imagined throat, but when he smiled back at Jacob he felt the connection he missed.

"You should probably start talking to the people yourself, though," he told him. "Because I won't be telling you anything else...lying comes to easily to me and I'm going to have to be careful now."

Jacob nodded, suspiciously and said, "So is it true? They aren't bad?"

With a sigh he said, "No, Jacob, I wasn't lying about that. They have a good leader right now and good laws, so... they aren't bad... but as with anyone, I'm sure they're _corruptible_. Their virtue hasn't been tested at all... yet anyway."

"Then I will talk to them," Jacob said. Jacob's quick acceptance almost made the new rule worth it, but as he picked up his cup again, Jacob's hand trembled. He set it back down and said, "Why am I still afraid, if I believe you?"

"Trauma isn't easy to get over... may I make a suggestion on how to approach them so it will be easier for you?"

...

"Imhotisis," he said, approaching the queen quietly during her daily prayer.

After a long delay, and with eyes still closed, she spoke, "Good morning, Anubis."

Not lying to the people didn't include correcting every misconception of who and what he was, so he'd accepted this name as he did share that god's primary function on the island.

"He's ready to meet with you," he said. Her blue eyes opened and when she saw where he was sitting, she stood, angry. He stood too and asked innocently, "What? Is Aten going to strike me down for sitting on his alter?"

She wouldn't dare correct or even contradict a god, she was too smart for that.

"What Aten chooses to do is not my concern. I am merely a priestess and will carry out his commands when I learn of them."

"Has he spoken to you already then?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Yes. Just now he has answered a prayer," she said.

"Oh?" he asked, and tilted his head.

"All night I was praying for guidance and a sign that he is still with us. This news you bring is confirmation."

"You know," he said. "I never could understand how you mortals distinguish between divine intervention and coincidence." As usual, she didn't respond to his sarcasm. He rolled his eyes at her polite silence; if she was even a little argumentative she'd be so much more interesting. "Alright," he said. "Directions...Travel south until the trees start to thin. Then travel West until you reach a deep ravine. He will be waiting across it to talk to you. If you must bring companions, make sure they're unarmed or he might not appear."

"Thank you, Anubis."

"Might I make a suggestion?" he asked. When she nodded, he walked over and noticed for the first time that she was just as tall as he was; it was a shame he couldn't make the illusion of this body taller. Trying not to feel intimidated by her stature he stood with his face a few inches from hers. She didn't flinch, though her breaths did deepen.

"Do whatever he asks," he said. She blinked in response and he went on. "He is too humble admit his powers to you, but he can bring down mountains and command the seas. He can hold back the storms or make it rain for months. He can make the winds blow and if he wanted to, I believe he could even put out the great light." He gestured to the sky, but in his mind meant the one in the cave. "So, I ask this for your own sake, Imhotisis, and the protection of your people. The one you are about to meet looks like a simple, kind man, but he has a temper that can react like a volcano. I beg you not to anger him." Then he smirked and added, "I guess I've grown fond of you, and I wouldn't want anything to happen to you like those that came before."

Her lips parted as she took in his words. In a whisper she said, "Thank you for your guidance." She bowed and as quick as he could he turned to smoke and left so he would appear to have vanished when she looked back up.


	11. Knowledge from the Priestess of Aten

Jacob had been waiting for most of the day behind a tree across from where his brother said he'd send the leader. He was nervous, both because he was unsure of his perceptions of people and because he hadn't talked with another adult except his brother since their mother...

His memory of her still stung. He missed her. But he was also hurt over what she'd done to his brother's people. Yet, in his rage, hadn't Jacob done the same thing to the Incas? The difference was, she'd killed them to protect the light and he done it because he couldn't bear to see them hurt the girl like that. Maybe both of them could have found another way.

After that, Jacob had asked the light to keep him from using his powers to hurt anyone unless it was necessary to do his job. He didn't know if that prayer would be answered, though. His mother tried to make it so he couldn't hurt his brother, so he would have to be careful to control himself, just in case.

Growing up he always wished his mother would teach him more than she did. Anything she did say was always so simple. Sometimes he thought she expected him to understand more than he did on his own, but it was more likely she didn't believe he was capable of understanding more than she told him.

His brother said she was bad for not teaching them more, but Jacob wanted to believe she did her best. So far, the light was helping him learn and he wondered, did his mother want it to teach Jacob? She said they were the same... maybe the light taught her and she knew that was the best way for him to learn?

"Greetings!" he heard. "I was told you speak Latin, is this true?"

With shock, Jacob stood. It was his language, but with different pronunciation. When he peered around the tree he saw his brother had left out quite a bit; the leader was a woman! Jacob never imagined that possible and unlike her people who wore cream tunics, she was in a white dress with gold jewelry and belt with bright beads laying in a circle from her neck to her chest.

She looked just like the images he'd seen on the papyrus! He couldn't imagine why his brother would keep this from him.

"Are you there," she asked, "or have I been led astray for some dark purpose or humor at my expense?"

Jacob smiled; that was possible any time his brother was involved. He remained hidden, but called out, "I'm here."

When someone spoke to her he noticed there was a whole group with her. The woman whispering to the leader looked younger and shorter, but she was dressed similarly, only with less gold and no beads. The leader scolded her and the woman fell silent and took a step back.

Then the leader called, "Will my lord hear the petition your servant has to offer on behalf of her people or is there some other matter to discuss?"

She was standing on the edge of the ravine, scanning the trees near where Jacob was hiding and he suddenly felt foolish for being afraid. He'd never had anyone speak to him like that before. When he stepped out from behind a tree, Jacob kept his eyes on her and his foot caught on a root, causing him to stumble. Thankfully he regained his balance quickly. When he looked back up at her, she was was staring straight forward as if she was pretending she hadn't seen.

"We have brought you an offering," she said. Behind her three men carrying two large jars and a box stepped forward.

Jacob carefully walked closer to the ravine, but not too close. "I'll hear your petition," he said. "But I don't want your gifts."

The men stepped back and the woman beside the leader who had spoken before gave them instructions and they turned and left.

"Your servant's name is Imhotisis," the leader sad with a bow. Unsure what to do, Jacob folded his hands in front of him and nodded.

"My people are exiles from our home in Egypt. We come from a tribe with the true bloodline of royalty, separated by beliefs from those who falsely occupy our land. We have maintained the traditions and beliefs of our ancestors and have kept guard over their wisdom."

She then lifted her arms, showing sleeves with bird feathers either painted or embroidered on them in black and gold.

It was stunning.

"I am a descendant of Akhenaten, the priest of Aten and Pharoah of Egypt."

She lowered her arms and waited a long while. By the time he realized she wanted a response, she spoke again, "A Pharaoh is a king, my lord."

Tilting her head down her blue eyes peered at him through her dark make up, just under her black bangs. Jacob scowled in confusion and she continued. "Our people believe Pharaohs to be gods." Speaking slowly she added, "And thus their descendants are descendants of gods... and are considered gods themselves."

When Jacob heard that, he realized what she was saying and he wondered if it meant she too had powers like he and his brother did.

"I see now you understand who I am," she said and lifted her chin slightly as she went on. "My people have put their faith in me, to find for them a home where we may practice our beliefs in peace and free from persecution. I have prayed to Aten to give me wisdom to lead us and following the guidance lent to me I have come to stand before you."

She was quiet now and yet even more expectant than before. Jacob waited until the discomfort prompted him.

"What do you want?" he asked.

The leader got down on one knee, placed her hands together and said, "My lord, I bid that you tell me what I want, so that I may know the Almighty Aten has sent us to you."

"I don't know what you want," Jacob scoffed.

"Does my lord desire that we continue our search?" she asked.

"No," he said. "So long as you're good, you can stay on the island."

Her smile caught him off guard and when she spoke, he felt a strange uneasiness.

"What I wanted, my lord, was not only your permission to remain here, but also the conditions. Only a man of great wisdom and vision could know such things." She stood and declared, "We will honor your decree, for our own mandate from the Almighty Aten requires the pursuit of virtue."

Jacob's heart began racing. His vision of the three Egyptian ships had come after days of trying to muster up the deepest emotions he could to ask the Light to bring good people to help him with his brother. And here this woman was saying exactly what he wanted to hear, and apparently he was saying what she wanted to hear.

When she started to turn and leave, Jacob called out, "Wait, where are you going?"

She returned to the ravine and knelt on one knee. "I am your servant, what additional requests may I grant?"

"Tell me about Aten," he said. "Is he your god?"

She stood and raised her arms again, even higher this time. The people behind her fell to their knees and she spoke loudly in a declaration that gave him chills.

"Aten is the giver of gifts, the keeper of life and death, the beginning and the end... the alpha and the omega... creator of the universe. The only true God... god above all gods... the Light of the world... the Source of all Love and Goodness."

It was so much to hear, but still, not enough. Jacob had read Greek scrolls which mentioned god like that but they were Jewish, not Egyptian. He took a step forward to ask her another question.

Suddenly losing all sense of decorum, she cried out, "Be careful, my Lord!" Jacob looked down and saw he was at the edge and would have fallen if he'd taken one more step. Seeing the honest concern on her face as he backed away, all of Jacob's doubts fell away.

His brother had not been lying, their leader was good, and he could feel it, and wanted to know her more, and learn more of what she knew. He hesitated, afraid to ask, so many times his mother would reject him... but this woman called him 'lord' and was practically begging for a request.

"Will you can teach me of your god and your people?" he asked.

"You have but to instruct me where and when."

...

Jacob didn't want to bring Imhotisis to his messy, little cave, and he didn't want to talk with her anywhere in the open near her people, so instead he choose a meeting place in the valley and after waiting for her to be alone as he had instructed, he came out of hiding and led her to his temple.

He'd prepared the day before, setting up a table with stools in the middle of the courtyard near the fire hearth and had made sure to have food and water. If it rained, they could go inside and he'd brought his own bedding in case the meeting lasted that long.

"Is this your home?" she asked as she sat.

"It's my temple."

"Who built it to you?"

"The people who were here before you," he said.

There was a long pause while he set out scrolls from his satchel and the blank parchment he had made.

"Where are they?" she asked.

"We got angry with them and killed them," he said. He looked at her and said, "Because they were being very bad." Gazing around he said, "But they did build good things, didn't they?"

Imhotisis placed her hands on her lap and gave him a small nod. It must have seemed very insignificant compared to the tomb pyramids in Egypt, but it was the best he could do.

"I have many questions for you," he said. "And I would like you to write down the answers if you can in Latin and in your own language because I would like to learn to speak it and to read the pictures your people use to record their history."

Imhotisis seemed uncertain, and when he showed her the papyrus that looked just like her, she was unimpressed.

"That could take many years, my lord," she said.

He nodded, disappointed at her reaction. "We should get started then," he said and put it away for later.

She answered every question about her religion and history that he could think of and even offered information about her culture that Jacob wouldn't have thought to ask. She wrote tirelessly everything he wanted to keep on record and wrote the alphabets of all the languages she knew and all the number systems and calendars as well.

When they took a break for dinner, long after the sun had set, he asked, "How do you know so much?"

"I was educated as a priestess from a very early age," she said. "That image of Isis you showed me, it is no accident that I dress as I do. It is a secret teaching of the Pharaoh that our only power exists in their faith of our people. Some use this faith for good, others for evil. It is a dangerous teaching, but my father swore to Aten to pass on everything he knew to his children. He had only daughters and when I was born the youngest of twelve, my mother died. Because I was all he had he took it as a sign to pour everything into me. I have done my best to live up to his promise and follow his desire for peace and the goodness that comes from Aten."

The memory of his hurtful words to his mother came to him. 'I'm all you've got...'

He looked into his cup of tea and asked, "Why didn't your father just take another wife? Isn't that what is normally done when a son isn't produced by the first wife?"

"He loved my mother." She said as if there were no other reason needed. It contradicted everything his brother ever said about relationships; but it rang true to Jacob.

"May your servant as _you_ a question, my lord?" Jacob nodded. "How is it you know so little?"

Jacob couldn't explain the pain that question brought him. He never had a father to teach him as she did and his mother... Jacob had struggled for everything he did know and he was still so ignorant. He wondered what his mother might have told him if she hadn't been killed. He'd never know and thinking about him made him feel sick.

Looking away from her, Jacob stood and left the fireside to return to the table. He began rolling up the parchment and tying them. When he started to collect the writing sticks and putting away the ink, she approached slowly.

"I'm sorry," she said. Her voice was so gentle and sincere, that Jacob glanced up to see her face. There was pity there and when she lifted her hand and touched his arm he suddenly felt vulnerable and frightened. He looked down and put down the small jar. "When I said you are a wise man of vision, I meant it. Your servant is honored to give you her knowledge and merely surprised to have anything to share with someone as worthy as you, my lord."

"My name's Jacob," he said, his voice trembled. He looked up and saw her face was curious. "Call me that."

"That's a Hebrew name. Are you of the tribe of Israel?" He didn't answer. His brother said they were Roman, but that was before he promised not to lie. "Are you the Jacob they speak of when they say 'the God of Jacob'?"

He felt so stupid. She had written for him the Hebrew alphabet and he recognized the lettering as being on many scrolls he had yet to read.

"It's time for you to sleep," he said. "Take the torch inside and put the fire in a hearth I prepared there... I need to go somewhere and I'll be back sometime tomorrow."

"You don't need to sleep?" she asked.

"I don't get tired like mortals do," he said, picking through the scrolls to find the Hebrew alphabet.

"So you are a god?" she asked.

He picked out the page she had written of basic words in the languages she knew and put them both in his satchel. With the weight of her eyes on him, he was beginning to understand the allure of lying.

"Please don't leave the temple," he said. "It's not safe in the jungle, especially at night." He walked for the door and before he left he turned. She knelt again and bowed; humbling herself to him again. "The man who told you to meet me that first day, is he why you keep bowing to me and calling me 'lord? Did he tell you I was a god?"

She looked up and said, "Anubis would not tell me who you are, only that you are more powerful than him."

Jacob walked out and slammed the door behind him. When he was far enough from the wall surrounding the temple he began demanding his brother meet him at his cave. but when he got there, his brother wasn't there.

He waited all through the night, translating bits and pieces of the Hebrew scrolls, looking for something besides laws and genealogies. When the sun rose and his brother still hadn't obeyed, Jacob had to concede he must not have lied to her. He had made such progress that he stayed two more days, reading through a scroll that he had found with his name in it. The translation of the story came easily to him, decoding the words based on context and those she had given him. From what he was able to lift, the Jacob in this history was not special in anyway as he had expected. He was a liar and a thief and had two wives and two concubines. He was afraid and ran away from his brother, but when Jacob read that this man wrestled with God, Jacob was astounded to find he had demanded to be blessed!

Who would demand to be blessed by a god, especially when he was so unworthy of it? It was incredible and even more so that despite his arrogance and all his flaws, God still choose to make promises to Jacob and blessed him! There were at least ten scrolls in Hebrew and rather than take a fourth day to painstakingly translate more of the story, Jacob put them all in his satchel and a few of the Greek ones he knew that referred to them and he headed back to the temple.


	12. Subversion

How Jacob managed to keep him out of the temple was a mystery. The lock keeping his human form from entering the gate made sense, as did the walls that were too high to climb. But as smoke, he'd expected to get in easily until he hit some sort barrier above it that kept him from going over the wall.

He couldn't travel too far off the ground without feeling himself come apart and losing the ability to do anything but drop straight down again, but he didn't have trouble ascending his own temple steps or even climbing trees. So why was this wall different?

The only thing he could figure is that Jacob must have made it another home and he was only allowed in when invited. That wasn't going to stop him from trying, not after Jacob had left Imhotisis alone in there for two full days. Casing the perimeter he found a weak spot in the wall where the earthquake must have loosened some bricks..

It took him more than half the day to break open a big enough hole that he could climb through as a man, if he ever needed to. Once he was through a little way he understood why it was so difficult, he wasn't just breaking through to the other side of the wall, he'd managed his way into an underground tunnel! It hadn't hurt ramming the stone again and again as smoke, but when he was done, he noticed it had taken a toll on his energy.

His clicking echoed in the underground tunnels, confusing his sense of direction even more than the darkness. Having dug several wells with a handful of people, he wondered at how hard the Incas must have pushed their slaves to dig so far in such a short time. Even with their numbers, the task was immense.

When he finally found a way up to the next level and into the temple he felt more exhausted than he ever had been since dying. Thankfully Imhotisis was familiar with both his forms, so instead of becoming human and walking for the last bit of his search, he remained smoke until he found her in the healing spring.

She wasn't alarmed by him as she had been when he'd first met her, she merely startled and then froze, watching him. The sun was setting and it was very dark in the chamber, but the alluring light of her soul glimmered in reflections on the water at her waist.

Her light would dim to his perception if he changed form, so as smoke he moved around as slow as he could, taking in the beauty of her brightness. She rivaled Jacob, and wondered if his brother even knew. When she climbed the steps and sat down at the top of them, she picked up a cloth laying there and he moved behind a pillar. He came back around as a man, wearing a black tunic the style of her guards.

All other times he'd shown himself to her in his own clothing, but he'd been studying their wardrobe and despite his meager strength, he imitated it to get a reaction. Her line of sight flowed from his face down to linger on his bear legs for a moment and then she glanced back into his eyes with an approving smile.

When she dried her face he noticed her hair was also wet and her white clothing clung to her. As a mortal man, he never would have missed that she'd was bathing when he came in, but now, his distraction was entirely focused on the goodness in her. It was another change; he didn't desire her flesh as much as touching her soul... to have it as his, and in a dark moment of realization he acknowledged to himself - to put it out.

But she would have to be dead for that, wouldn't she?

"Greetings," she said in Latin. Oddly, she didn't take her regular submissive posture. Instead she continued to squeeze the water from her hair back into the pool and then ran her tan fingers through its inky blackness.

"No longer showing the god's respect?" he asked.

Her gazed returned to his face and he saw that though there were still smudges around her eyes, the thick lines of her make up were washed away and she looked significantly younger.

"I'm unaccustomed to your ways," she said. He approached her slowly, eying her form hoping for some inkling of his past passion for women. Aesthetically she was near perfection, but it inspired no lust in him. Perhaps it was just his lack of energy; to lose that too was unimaginable.

"While it is accepted that Aten is all knowing and omnipresent," she said. "I have never been trained in the proper etiquette for a manifestation of a god during personal moments... so perhaps I should ask you, have you no respect for me?"

Stopping in his tracks, he licked his lips, intrigued. "Why should I?" he asked.

She now used the cloth to soak up the dampness in her hair and he noticed, it was one Jacob took from their home; one his mother had woven. It unnerved him and he wanted to take it from her and burn it in the courtyard fire.

"That was not a judgment call, it was a question," she said. "Of course I have respect for you, Anubis. You are the judge of souls." She set the cloth down, climbed the last step and came before him, leaving a dripping wet puddle where she rested on one knee bowing before him. "If you require that I stop what I am doing when you present, then I may find myself in many awkward moments of submission." She looked up at him and something was different in her eyes than before as she asked, "Is that how you want it to be between us? Does my dignity mean so little to you, my lord?"

It was a difficult question. He'd never had this much respect from a woman before. He liked the thought of a queen being humble before him like this and yet... it didn't feel sincere. It was more like role playing for her. Perhaps that's all it ever was, only for some reason she had found no reason to hide it from him any longer.

"Get up," he said. "Finish what you were doing."

She obeyed, standing, but instead of returning to her things, she looked directly into his eyes, without fear. In fact, there was something else there. Whatever had changed, it was subtle.

"You look tired," she said.

Feeling the strain of keeping this form he nodded and said, "It wasn't easy getting in here. I guess _he_ wanted to make sure you were safe when he abandoned you." She raised her brows and he said, "From what I've seen, your people are starting to worry... they're searching the jungle."

"I'm sure they are," she said. "I told them I'd return the evening they left me and they were to come back to that meeting place. But Jacob neglected to tell me he wanted me to become his personal tutor of everything I've ever learned."

With a chuckle, he shook his head and it made him feel dizzy. He examined her amused face and gestured for a stone bench. "Mind if I sit?"

She returned to where her belt and jewelry were and he sat, leaning his back against the wall, watching as she fastened everything back on. "So did he tell you anything besides his name?" he asked. "Or was this a one way exchange of information?"

"He told me some. He said he killed the people who built this temple because they were bad." She looked up as she attempted to fasten her necklace. "But when I questioned him about his past he became angry and that's when he left... I should have taken your direction and merely been submissive." Unable to manage the clasp on her own, Imhotisis hands fell to her lap with the necklace as she asked, "You aren't really Anubis are you?"

With a light shaking of his head, he smiled at her.

"Which god are you then?" she asked.

"None you've ever heard of," he said. Honesty felt strange, but not bad and it was interesting to have a pleasant conversation with someone who seemed to believe she was his equal. If he was going to leave the island with Imhotisis, it could be enjoyable to have such a friendship, but not very useful. "I _can_ read people to see if they're good or bad."

"And you help Jacob protect the island in this way?"

"I suppose," he said.

"Did you tell him that my people are good?" she asked. He nodded. She let out a small laugh and said, "You look like you're about to fall asleep."

"Sleep," he said, dreamily. "I wish I could." He turned and lay down on the stone bench, closing his eyes.

He could hear her getting up and coming to his side and when he peeked out of the corner of his eye he saw she had knelt down beside him.

"Tell me your name," she whispered, "So I may pray to you."

He lifted his arm and with a finger he pushed away a strand of her black, damp hair. He knew that expression on a woman's face, and again he felt the loss of becoming this way. He was sure he could still be with her, but he wouldn't feel anything; it would be role playing on his part and he wanted nothing of it. But there was something else he could do, if he could muster the energy.

"I might be able to _show_ you who I am," he said.

"I would be honored," she said.

He had no plans to reveal much of himself, but sat up and faced her, intending instead to see if he could touch, or maybe even envelope a soul still in a living body.

Lifting his hands to her shoulders he said, "Close your eyes, Imhotisis and keep them closed, no matter what happens." She did so immediately and he thought to kiss her, she looked so ready, but instead he relaxed into a smoke cloud that began to swirl around her. He allowed moments from his life to flash and he could feel that even with her eyes shut she could see them. He was careful to show only those few times he was heroic, saving people's lives, standing up for friends, rescuing Jacob from the Incas; and when she seemed most impressed, when that light inside of her was almost blinding in her fiery admiration, he closed in.

As his smoke touched her hot skin, she cringed, likely from the chill of him; but he didn't let her reaction stop him. He felt new energy fill him as he flowed over her flesh. Hearing her whimper, he began to squeeze, hoping to pass through her living shell to get to the light within. She shivered and he felt a tiny tingling of what he wanted; how he ached to know this soul and yet he could only graze the surface when he wanted to dive in. In his desperation, he brought to her mind another memory; he was in the well, digging and he found the Light. She was more than impressed by his discovery and he felt in her a desire to know _him_ more. Her mind was now reaching for him, searching him and in the surprise of her violation, he revealed what he did not intend... his plotting against his people to trick them into making him leader... Imhotisis cringed when she saw him kill a man and take his place. He was in her thoughts and the queen could not hide her contempt as she pulled away from him.

In revenge, he dug into _her_ memories. He knew what to look for, ignoring any virtue and brought back only the worst. He showed her how she was favored but had treated her older sisters very poorly; teasing them for not knowing as much as she did, taunting them that she didn't have to work or marry. She didn't want to see it, but he brought up every dark thought he could find, every temptation, every flaw. He showed her those moments she craved being seen as a goddess and the power it gave her over even those closest to her. And then he replayed her deepest regret, leading these people here, claiming to have had a vision and abandoning her sisters and other nonbelievers of their tribe in Egypt. He reminded her that she knew it would mean their death and that her lie may yet bring the death of these people. He felt her guilt and reveled in crushing her self-righteousness.

She begged him to stop, but just like Jacob, she had judged him and he wouldn't have it. It wasn't fair or right that she could have so much light in her despite the evil _she_ had done.

When he felt the torture of her beginning to drain him again, he dropped her onto the floor and backed away smug that her light had dimmed substantially. Proud of his success, he materialized and looked down on her. She was nothing but a quivering, sobbing lump of a creature now. When she gazed up at him, her eyes were wet and red and he felt no compassion.

"That wasn't what I was hoping for," he sneered. "You should go back to your people before Jacob sees you like this."

She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't... I was told to stay here. I'm too afraid to disobey." He was turning to leave when she cried out, and crawled to his feet, holding on to his ankles and begging him, "Please, don't go! Don't leave me... Jacob will kill me if you tell him what I've done... and my people will never survive without me. I've made them too dependent... please... I ask not for myself, but for them..."

"You want me to protect you from Jacob?" She nodded and he said, "Then you'll have to do everything I ask."

She looked unsure for a moment, but then cried as she nodded.

Now this was true humility.


	13. Deception vs Lies

**Author's Note: Thanks again for the great reviews! It's always wonderful to see how much the story is being enjoyed and what you like about it. :) **

**I also wanted to mention that while the tv show never mentions the Incas, I used the temple design and Jacob's red rug as inspiration to write those chapters. Look up Jacob's Rug on lostpedia to see it!  
**

**As for the Egyptians, I've finally decided not to make this story completely in line with the others but to work in the statue being built. It just works too well for where it's going... **

...

When Jacob entered the temple gates both the courtyard and the inside rooms were empty. There was no fire in either hearth and the entire place was silent.

"Imhotisis?" he called out. There was no answer. He wondered at first if she had fallen asleep, but his bedding was crumpled in a mess in the corner. Then he heard something scurry behind him in the shadows and turned to see a small animal disappear into a crevice on the wall.

A darker, frightening thought occurred to him. Maybe the temple wasn't as safe as he thought.

"Imhotisis!" he shouted. His voice just echoed through the halls.

As Jacob felt around in his satchel for flint he glanced towards the hearth to see if the torch was there. Then he heard the familiar ticking sound.

He'd asked the Light to keep his brother from passing over the wall, and while he was frustrated that his power source might be as fickle as the gods he read about, Jacob also felt slightly relieved that if his brother was here and might know something.

"Where is she?" he asked as soon as the human form walked around the corner.

"I sent her home."

"Why did you do that?" he demanded, "I wasn't done with her!"

"You left her alone in here for _four_ days," his brother said as he approached. "With only a meager helping of food." He stopped a few paces away from Jacob and then in a softer tone he said, "You can't treat people like that, Jacob. Not a woman, and certainly not a queen."

Jacob had picked four mango and had left two fish on a stone in the courtyard, but he only now realized four days was far too long. Running his fingers over the flint in his hands, Jacob looked up at his brother and said, "Thank you for taking care of her."

"Of course," he said, nodding. "She's very frightened of you, though. You shouldn't have told her what you did to the Incas."

Jacob stood and asked, "Why? I told her they were bad."

"How is she supposed to know what you consider bad? I could barely get her to leave this place because she was too afraid of disobeying an order from a god. What if I hadn't come and you were distracted for longer?"

It was inexcusable and Jacob knelt to repack his satchel. "I need to talk to her," he said.

"You can't just interrupt her anytime you want," his brother said. "She said she's too busy to entertain all your questions about life."

"She said that?" Jacob asked.

"Her exact words were, 'I didn't know Jacob expected me to tutor him in everything I've ever known.'"

Jacob was devastated.

He had been annoyed that Imohotisis thought he was stupid, but for her to see him as inconsiderate and uncaring somehow felt worse. Deciding he could translate the scrolls himself, he put the packed satchel on his shoulder and stood.

"I should at least apologize, shouldn't I?" Jacob said.

"I don't know..." his brother said. "If you showed up right away she might really get spooked. I told her I'd take care of things... maybe just give her some space for a while...She seems to like me, I could give her a message."

"Would you tell her my exact words?" Jacob asked.

"If that's what you want," his brother said, hands on his hips.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience and I shouldn't need any more help. But... I might want to visit with her again, when she has time."

His brother nodded. "Very good. I'll pass it on and let you know what she says."

Seeing his brother's smile, Jacob had to comment. "You seem to like her. Is she good enough for you to concede my point?"

"She's good enough to warrant a test for virtue," his brother said. "If she passes it, I'll concede, if she doesn't, it'll be obvious to you that she's driven by fear, not conscience."

"What test?" Jacob asked, nervously.

"You'll see."

"You can't hurt her."

"That's not the rule, you said I can't _kill_ anyone unless they are as bad as those who were going to kill that girl. That's what we agreed to." A wave of nausea passed through Jacob and his brother must have seen it on his face. "What's the matter, are you afraid I'll corrupt her?" His brother took another step forward and asked, "Having second thoughts, Jacob? Want to concede?"

"I just don't want anyone to get hurt," Jacob said.

"Life hurts, Jacob," his brother snapped, "Isn't there something in those Greek letters, I think the one to the Romans; suffering leads to perseverance and perseverance to character?"

"But we don't have to _cause_ it," Jacob said. "We should just watch."

"That'll take too long and I don't want to wait. Think of it this way," he said. "If they were taking their chances on the sea they might have been hunted down by their enemies and killed. Exiles don't last long in the outside world... And it's not like I'm asking to test all of them, just Inhomtisis. Whatever suffering I put her through... don't you think it would be better than death for all of them?"

Jacob wasn't sure. "We should give her a choice..."

"Why when we know she'd say yes. She'd do anything for her people. But if we _told_ her about the game, she would be afraid of failing and that would make her lose! The only fair way is to wait until my test is over to tell her it was part of a game. And then, she can decide if she forgives us and wants to stay."

When Jacob created this game he really believed they would be having philosophical discussions not manipulating people like this. But his brother was right, based on what Jacob knew of Imhotisis she would rather have herself tested than for any of her people to suffer.

"Fine," Jacob said. His brother looked very satisfied and Jacob tossed his satchel on a bench.

"You staying here, then?" his brother asked.

"I might... how'd you get in, anyway?"

His brother raised his brows. "You tell me what you did to the wall and I'll tell you how I got in."

Jacob didn't want to admit he had to pray for his powers to work so he said, "Never mind, but I think I _will_ make this my home, so you're not allowed in anymore unless I invite you."

"You stop keeping people prisoner against their will and I'll stay out."

"No! That's not what we agreed to." Jacob pointed at him and said, "You have to stay out unless I say so. "

"Just out of this temple here?" his brother asked.

"And my cave," Jacob said and then added, "And the courtyard. You aren't allowed inside the gate unless I give you permission."

"What if you aren't here?" he asked. "What if you've captured someone else and they're stuck in here starving... or you've got a bunch of people in here, should I... stay out and let them die?"

Jacob hated that his brother was so difficult and he was getting more angry than he wanted to, "You have to have permission from me or whoever I put in charge!"

His brother raised his hands innocently and said, "Just making sure I understand." His brother backed away and with a dark grin, he turned to smoke but instead of going out into the courtyard and through the gate, he swept into a hall and Jacob ran a few steps after him watching him disappear into the darkness of the temple corridors.

After lighting the torch, Jacob took off after him to see why he hadn't listened, and then he saw it... steps down. Jacob didn't even know there was another level. So now his brother could haunt below his home; perfect.

...

Jacob stayed away from Imhotisis for a while, but he watched her and her people more closely than before. They built a city of clay huts for themselves and he was very pleased to see there were no slaves among them; all tasks were split according to skill and paid for in fair exchange. There were none who stood guard ensuring the farming or crafting was done either; they worked because it needed to be done, and the older children worked along with their parents for part of the day and then went into a larger stone building for lessons in the afternoon.

On each week's end, the people took time to relax and enjoy bigger meals. They also played beautiful music on harps and lyres and Jacob would sit in the trees and listen all night during their festivities every full moon. He came so often that he became careless and was seen once, but the eyes of the people passed over him and looked away, as if they didn't want him to know they'd seen. He felt like a ghost to them.

Over that next year he saw them prosper and his brother participated in many of their activities. His black tunic amused Jacob; it was so much like a dress, and when he accompanied Imohotisis to official events his brother wore a wreath of gold leaves around his head at his ears as if he was a Caesar from Rome. Seeing them together, though, Jacob was increasingly nervous about when the test might be and what it was.

When he'd asked about Imhotisis' response to his message, his brother had told him she'd only said, "I am your servant." but had indicated that even though she was grateful he wasn't still angry, she didn't have time to entertain Jacob's questions yet. Last time he saw his brother he asked if she would mind if he joined a festival, but his brother hadn't returned to tell him her answer.

At first Jacob was glad he had given his brother a human form to be able to enjoy the company of people again, but one evening his heart was especially pricked with jealousy. A few of Imotisis handmaidens were teaching young men to dance in a side alley away from the main celebration when his brother joined in. The five young women quickly began favoring his brother and all of them were laughing at his missteps. While Jacob could see the humor in it he felt very much as if his brother was enjoying the attention too much; almost as if he knew Jacob was watching.

It would be different if his brother was being won over by the people's goodness, but the last time they spoke he had insisted Imotisis wasn't ready for his test. It felt like he was stalling, enjoying his time with them while Jacob had to stay away.

Maybe they were afraid of him, but Jacob's ache of loneliness inspired him to decide to talk to Imhotisis again, even if he made it worse.

...

Jacob waited until he saw her leave her home with her assistants and then he slipped out of hiding and walked through the city. She seemed to blend in with them, wearing their style of tunic, hers just a shade whiter. Nobody said a word to him, though he noticed a few changed direction or moved to the other side of the road when they pretended to not see him.

When she went into the main building he waited outside for a long time and at one point thought to ask the man taking attendance of the others who entered to get her for him. But instead, when the man become distracted with a conversation, Jacob walked in to see she was on a throne at the front dressed now in a black and gold striped skirt with a large matching hat on her head. He again felt he was looking at a painting. She was hearing the plea of someone with a dispute and there was a line of less than a dozen waiting for her attention.

Jacob waited at the back of the room for a while but she was so focused on the people she was helping that she didn't see him. Admiring her ability to see through what the people were asking for, to give a ruling on what they needed, Jacob humorously decided to get in line himself.

The maiden who had been there the first day glanced at him and then looked at her scroll and started to approach. When she got closer and took a second look, he raised his brows slightly. She stopped and stared for a moment and then looked down, writing something on the scroll and walking back up front. She announced the next case without a word to Imhotisis about him.

When Jacob was next in line, Imhotisis finally saw him, but did not stop her work; merely blinked at him and continued. Her assistant named the women in front of him and explained one sister was asking for payment from the other who had borrowed a blanket and soiled it beyond use when it fell in the mud. Imhotisis asked questions, trying to understand the agreement between the sisters at the time of the lending. The bickering between the sisters went beyond the blanket and into other minor disputes that they were using as reference for how each of them had been wronged more.

Finally their queen had enough and she raised her hand, silencing them both. "You are both to make two new blankets... together. You may borrow a royal spinning wheel and loom for the task."

The women gasped and turned to one another excited. Imhotisis said to her assistant, "There's nothing to calm a dispute like a little cooperative weaving... make sure they have one of the bigger looms at their disposal by week's end and the wheel starting tomorrow."

The sisters dispute had quickly turned to wonder as they left together in whispers of what grand blankets they could make.

When Jacob stepped forward, last in line, the queen folded her slender fingers together and her assistant stood with her scroll beside her, unsure as she said, "Your final case is... Jacob?"

"Yes, that is him," Imhotisis said. "What is your case, my lord?"

"I've wronged someone," Jacob said. "I need to make it right and I'm not sure how. Having witnessed the wisdom of this court, I thought to request your advice."

The other people in the large room were watching him in awe and her assistant was staring at Imhotisis with large, dark eyes.

"Whom did you wrong?" Imhotisis asked.

"You," he said.

Her painted eyes seemed to look right into him, the same way she had seen into her own people, only this time, there was a tremor on what had been a solid and strong chin.

"It would please me," she said and looked at her assistant, "To clear the court. This is a private dispute and not for public hearing."

Once it was just the two of them, she took off her tall hat, revealing that her hair was braided and secured up on her head in gold combs. She took in a breath and came down off of the throne.

When she got to him and started to bow he said, "No, Imhotisis." He reached out, holding her gently by her silk covered shoulders. "Don't."

She kept her eyes cast down, but she stood. "Every day since I left you, I have regretted my disobedience."

"And I've regretted not keeping my word and leaving you in that temple for too long. I'm here to apologize to you, I don't expect or deserve one."

Her blue eyes looked up at him as if she still couldn't believe it.

"Do you forgive me?" he asked, squeezing her shoulders.

"Of course, my lord," she said.

He let go and smiled. "Good." He looked around and took in a breath. "This is really neat what you do here." He looked back at her and said, "Does everyone come to you with their problems?"

"No," she said, studying his face. "Each household has a head. They send big cases to me or those where there is a conflict of interests... the husband of one of those sisters is their head of household and it would have been unfair..." Jacob started to walk around as she spoke, looking at the hieroglyphics carved into the walls. "...to have him judge for his own wife... Does he know you're here?"

"Who?" Jacob asked, stopping in front of a statue of a god with long ears and a nose. "Is this a wolf head on a man?"

"It's a Jackal," she said. "That's Anubis."

"A Jackal is similar to a wolf, though?" he asked, glancing at her. She nodded and he said, "Who did you mean, the man at the entrance?"

"I meant..." she started and looked at the statue of Anubis and then said, "Your friend who helps you protect the island." She looked back at him and asked, "Does he know you're here?"

"Oh, him... No. I don't think so. I didn't tell him." Jacob tried to make it sound as much like he didn't care as possible.

Jacob walked to the back of the large hall and pointed to a gigantic symbol above the doorway. "I've seen this everywhere, on the bows of your ships, in the scrolls I have and now here in your temple..." He turned to her and said, "I know you said it means 'to make or do' in your written language, and that it's also a number... but does it mean something else? Something special?"

"Yes, that is the eye of Horus," she said. "It is the symbol of protection." Jacob looked back up at it and she said, "Please...Jacob, come with me?" He followed her into a private room in the back where there was an alter. On it was carved an image of Aten, a circle with lines descending from it and hands on each of them. While he was studying it, she went to the windows and pulled the curtains shut. "This won't help if he wants in, but at least if he walks by, he won't see you."

When she turned to Jacob he tilted his head in question.

"Has he been bad to you?" he asked.

"No, not at all... just the opposite, which is why I want your permission to give him a gift."

He now doubted even more that the test hadn't begun. "You don't need my permission," he said gruffly.

"You're his lord," she said. "He answers to you."

"No he doesn't," Jacob said.

"But you protect and rule over the island, he said that much. He said he is merely your guest... that this is not his home."

"It's complicated," Jacob said. "What do you want to give him?"

"Rest," she said. "He suffers when still in his smoke form because he loses a sense of himself. But he loses energy when he feigns sleep as a man. It's an endless cycle."

His brother had often complained about his existence, but Jacob never thought to try to change it. "How will you do it?"

"I'm not sure yet... I don't know if it's even possible," she said. "I'm asking for your help because I'm sure there will be prayers involved."

Jacob nodded, and then suspecting the test, he asked, "Did he request this gift?"

"No," she said. "He has requested other gifts we are preparing... but this one was my idea, because I believe it's what he needs most."

Jacob didn't know if he could help and didn't want to promise anything.

"Perhaps I can gain your favor in this cause by confessing to you we have already begun work on an equally deserved gift for you."

"I don't want gifts," he said.

"We do this out of gratitude, so I beg you not to forbid it!" she said. Jacob looked away, feeling very uncomfortable as she continued. "My people need a task to physically manifest their thankfulness or Aten's gifts will become entitlement in their hearts."

"Give it to Aten then, I haven't done anything but watch you," Jacob scoffed.

"You let us live here in peace, where we have experienced prosperity, and the fruitfulness of our labor has never been so abundant."

"Those aren't gifts," Jacob said. "Your people worked for those. Character isn't a gift from me or the Light, it's forged in your own hearts." Her expression shifted and she didn't look disappointed as much as worried. So he asked, "What's so wrong with taking credit for what you've done and who you are?"

"Do you not know that pride corrupts?" Her tone had taken a very instructional tone. "My people are in danger of thinking we have become great because we deserve it. Yes, we have worked hard, but our circumstances have been generous. We need to be grateful or in times of hardship and suffering we will not persevere. The gift is not dismissing our part in what we've done, it is acknowledgment that we are not above humility." She stepped forward and said, "That is why _you_ are so _good_, Jacob. You, who hold the power to destroy us all were not too proud to come to me in my own court and apologize in public. Men do not do that, my lord..." She then defied him and got on her knees before him, looking up and taking his hands as she finished. "...only _great_ men do.'

Her flattery was embarrassing enough, but more distracting was her warm, smooth fingers. He hadn't touched living human flesh in over a century.

"Please, allow us to follow your example, Jacob. Even if you do not agree that you have done enough to deserve our gift, accept it as we accepted your grace in allowing us to stay here when we did not deserve it... We know you don't need it, but we _need_ to give it."

Glancing at her blue eyes, brightened even more by the encircled black lines, Jacob didn't feel he could refuse her. He squatted down to her level and said, "I would be honored, Imhotisis."

Relieved, she squeezed his hands and then, brought them together, kissing each one. Her soft lips felt magical, like she was sealing the agreement between them.

"So," he asked, as she lifted her head. "Is there any chance we could spend more time together? I don't want to be a bother, but..." Her face paled and Jacob immediately sensed he had said something wrong; she was frightened, no - terrified. "You can say 'no', Imhotisis" he reassured. "I won't be angry... just... disappointed."

Shaking her head she said, "I can't. I would like to... I... just don't think it's possible."

He wished she would explain, but didn't want to frighten or bother her with his questions. So he nodded, and let go of her hands. She slowly lowered them to her lap and he saw tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Can I watch more of your court at least?" he asked. "I promise to be quiet and your people don't seem to notice me anyway."

A tear fell as she let out a small chuckle and said, "I think that would be fine."

He rubbed his chin and said, "You know... Jethro told Moses that he should delegate." With a confused expression, Imhotisis tilted her head. "I translated a few Hebrew scrolls," he said admitted. "Have you read about the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt?"

"Long ago," she said. "When I was a child... I'd forgotten that particular lesson." She hesitated for a moment and then said, "I will do as you say... I have many who could teach the children in my place and I long thought to train other high judges."

"Maybe then you'll have time for me?" he asked.

"Perhaps," she said, unsure. "I will approach you, or send for you if I do."

He stood and reached down to help her stand. "And about my brother's gift," he said. "You will let me know how I can help?"

"Yes," she said. "I have much to do yet to make the gifts worthy of their recipients... will you keep it a secret from him?"

Jacob nodded, feeling he might agree to anything she asked right now, but they were interrupted by the sound of a small chime. Her afternoon class was to begin. With her permission, he stayed, as much to learn what she was teaching the children as to her kind voice for a while longer.

...

Months passed and Jacob came whenever her court was in session and to watch many of the classes she taught. He didn't attend the official council meetings and wasn't brave enough to attend the overly social festivals but found a few people who would converse with him casually. The court attendance master in particular was a favorite for his openness in sharing the local gossip, as was Imhotisis main attendant who had finally lost her sense of awe in his presence. Imhotisis never did approach him, though, and she only sent him sad glances, full of apology. Jacob was patient and understanding, glad at least for his new friends, until he noticed on many occasions the queen would retreat from the public, and his _brother_ was permitted to follow.

When six months had passed with no change, it was too difficult to endure being ignored and Jacob gave up visiting the city. Instead he watched the people in the fields and one day followed a group of men to a place where work was being done on the shore. To his amazement, there was a massive mountain of dirt that started at ground level to climb to the height of a tree where the men worked with chisels and hammers. One day he was watching they drug a huge stone slab on top of logs they placed on the dirt ramp, allowing it to roll easily and quickly up to where it ended. Even more so than with the Incas, Jacob was impressed. What should have been an impossible task seem so simple and a light chore to those who knew how to do it.

Unable to discern what they could be building, or if it was his gift or one for his brother, Jacob decided to return to his cave, taking the long journey along the shore to avoid the inhabitants. He couldn't get the image of his brother glancing around before he entered Imhotisis home out of his mind or the hurt that she favored him.

And then he came across something on the beach, and it all began to make sense. There were logs lining a path from the ocean to the jungle, similar to those on the ramp. When Jacob explored where they went, he saw a group of ten men, some stirring tar and others using large brushes to paint it on the bottom of the three, overturned boats.

He could barely believe his eyes and listened as the men spoke to one another in their own language. And then he heard another voice, one he'd known his whole life and he felt utterly betrayed both by his brother and Imhotisis.

"Excellent work," he said, rubbing his hands together. "Once we finish this coat it's done and we can all go home and rest."


	14. For Love or Glory

**Author's Note: My stats haven't been working since January 1st :( so I have no idea if anyone read that last chapter yet, but this one is done, so I'm putting it up. :)**

...

"We've been harshly warned that he prefers solitude so what exactly is your concern?"

Imhotisis was unusually tense, he could tell just by the tone she took with her assistant. He'd come to tell her Jacob had seen the boats, but he hadn't expected to be privy to a private conversation.

"What if he's stopped visiting us because we've lost his favor," Nifitis asked. "His statue will take weeks to uncover, is there any other gift we can give?"

"If you have any faith in me as your queen, then believe me, Jacob is not the one you have to worry about. Keep your mind set on pleasing Anubis and all will go well."

There was a heavy pause and then the assistant responded, "I fear for the way he looks at you... as if he's always weighing your heart, waiting for you to fail."

She was slightly off on what he was thinking, but he would try to be more discreet.

"It will soon be over," Imhotisis reassured, "You will reign well and Jacob will protect you."

That was not what he expected to hear! Perhaps he couldn't trust Imhotisis as much as he thought.

A few moments later, the young assistant exited Imhotisis home and as soon as she saw him waiting, he could tell she wanted to rush back in to warn her queen. He gave her a dark, look of warning and shook his head. Painfully she obeyed and stepped out of his way.

When he entered he saw the queen was sitting at her desk looking over the daily records. She glanced up at him and took in a deep breath, letting it out as she focused again on the parchment before her.

"You were eavesdropping?"

"Yes," he said, walking into the middle of her large room. She was still wearing her royal clothing, but her braids were down. "She's taking over? That wasn't our agreement."

Placing her hands flat on the records she stood and said, "Yes. I've just made the decision today. Regardless of your 'requests', she is most suited."

Was it possible? After all he'd promised her that she was going to refuse him? He walked over to her desk and leaned on it with his knuckles, glaring in her eyes. "Are you denying me a sacrifice?"

Unaffected, she sat. "No. You will have a sufficient life when the time comes, but it will not be Nifisis."

He stood and crossed his arms. It really didn't matter who.

"It's been two weeks," she said, changing the subject. "How do you feel?"

"Awful," he said. "How's the project coming along?"

Imhotisis got up and walked around her desk to a large cloth he only just now noticed was covering something against her back wall. When she removed it he saw a coffin shaped box that rested at waist level on a thick stick that went through it and two pedestals on either side.

"It's stone we baked with ash, and the inside is concave in the shape of a man. You should pour out of it fairly easily on your own when you wish, but..." " She placed her fingers below the base and lifted and effortlessly rotated it. "...we can wake you. That way you won't have to worry about keeping track of time."

He moved forward to examine it and pushing it back down, he ran his fingers along the detailed carving of a stylized smoke image facing the traditional form of Anubis.

"I suggest you try it out tonight."

"Not yet," he said. "I'm going for the full six weeks." She rested her hand on it and looked at the craftsmanship herself. "Thank you," he said. "If I _can_ rest before the sacrifice, I'm sure I'll have enough energy to make the long journey in my human form."

Her smile was sad and he knew why. As much as she believed restoring her people to their proper position in Egypt was a worthy goal, with nearly a hundred children added to their tribe, there was no longer enough room for everyone on the three boats. A delicious reluctance had tainted all their plans for the future ever since that calculation and her heart was made even more heavy by his hinting that a human sacrifice would empower him.

He'd learned that the crucial difference between those that sinned in darkness and those who could remain bright while committing their evil crimes was the guilt and regret that accompanied it. Imhotisis was doing what she did not want to do and it would be enough to both win Jacob's wager and give him the right to kill her and take her bright soul as his precious prize.

"I'm looking forward to it more than you can possibly realize," he said leering at her.

Her eyes gazed from the stone back into his and he wasn't sure if it was the candlelight on her face, or her own glow, but he felt himself slipping, dizzily into smoke, wanting that tingling, tempting taste of her she sometimes gave him before his endurance test had begun.

Jutted back to the reality of his situation he looked away and said, "Jacob saw the boats, by the way. You'll tell me if he shows up here again?"

"Of course," she said. "What should I tell him?"

"The truth. There's nothing we're doing here that will harm the island and there's no way to hide that we're leaving now." As he was speaking he felt weary and closed his eyes. He was going to have to start just watching the workers.

"Come," she said, taking his hand. "Stop talking and lay down with me... that sometimes helps."

It did, so he agreed and reclining in her bed he watched her undress, feeling both the most fortunate man in the world, and the most cursed.

...

After the six straight weeks in his human form, he could take it no longer and decided to rest before seeking his brother out. Jacob had not approached either of them about the boats, and he wanted to make sure to invite him to the ceremony that would end this game.

In only one night, he felt rejuvenated. It was surprisingly more comfortable than he imagined and worked just as they intended. He had no sense of dispersion and had kept his thoughts together enough to even imagine dreams!

In the morning when she tilted the stone, he rose.

"It worked," he said, after taking his human form. She looked shaken. "What's wrong?"

"_I_ did not rest well," she said. He smiled when she said, "I had dreams... about you." She lifted her brows and accused, "Did you give them to me?"

Remembering the fantasies he'd imagined, he wondered if it was possible that she'd somehow shared them. From the look on her face, he believed that's exactly what happened.

"Well, now you know how I feel about you," he said, watching a shiver run through her.

Imhotisis hands ran over her arms. "Why make me live them?"

"I didn't _make_ you..." he said. "I didn't realize I was projecting my thoughts... I didn't know I could."

"Why have thoughts like that at all?" she asked.

There it was, that superiority he hated in her. "What thoughts have you had in your mind, that you wouldn't want me to know?" he demanded, taking a step towards her. "Shall I find out?"

"No," she said, shaking her head and shrinking from him. He continued towards her, still as a man, but allowed the shrieking sound of his smoke fill her room. "Please, I'm sorry..." Imhotisis said, covering her head as she squatted down becoming as small as he'd ever seen her.

If he had to be honest, he preferred not seeing her cower. He needed her, and he wanted her, but there was no enjoyment in her being his slave.

"I'm sorry too," he said. "I won't touch you... Just don't judge me, alright? I can't help what I am."

She peered up over her arm and said, "I can't take this place anymore. I want to leave... as soon as we can."

It was music to his ears! Imhotisis was always the one delaying with this reason or that. "Can you get the boats packed and ready without me?" he asked. She nodded. "Then tomorrow night, I'll start my month long rest."

...

They decided to move his sleeping chamber into the main temple and out of Imhotisis personal home, but she'd promised to join him once a week, in case he wanted to speak to her through her dreams; he promised to make them pleasant.

In the back of the temple before the small ceremony, he thought to secure her loyalty with one more temptation. Watching her attendants adjust her braids and jewelry he walked before her and they stepped to the side as they worked.

"Before we leave the island," he said, careful to speak only in possibilities. "We should marry." Her blue eyes widened. "I want you to no longer be compared to Isis, but to be seen as a goddess in your own right. Future generations should write of you and compare their queens to you, the most beautiful goddess."

Those in the room still all believed he was Anubis and could not hide their amazement to be present at the proposal. She would be a fool to refuse in front of them.

"That is my heart's greatest desire," she said.

He stepped forward and said, "I know." Leaning down with a finger under her chin, he gave her an icy kiss.

When he pulled back, she said, "Your sacrifice will be waiting for you when you awake, my lord."

"Make sure Jacob is invited," he said.

...

Resting in the stone containment was as close to sleeping as he guessed he would ever feel again. Though he could focus his thoughts, measure the passage of time and feel what was happening in his immediate surroundings, it didn't take the energy of maintaining his form and it was very, very peaceful.

Dreams weren't as they were when he was a man either; he could control them and the projection aspect of his thoughts was yet another unexpected power resource. Jacob had said he couldn't lie to the people, but these weren't spoken words, they were images. Would it be his fault if people believed their dreams? To inspire even more loyalty, he showed many the greatness they would taste in Egypt and the leadership he intended to give them.

He only entered Imotisis's mind when she came close enough for him to feel her. She'd sleep beneath his stone, so close that if he wanted to, he could extend his smoke and touch her.

He resisted.

Instead he showed her them reigning together and how he would be gentle with her and she would be his equal. He even imagined a child between them, though he knew it was impossible. It was a dream, a beautiful dream of a powerful heir who would rival any gods those across the sea had seen.

When she didn't come to him on their last appointed time before he woke, he waited for a day and then sought her out. She wasn't sleeping, and he found entering her waking thoughts different. He could see her by a hearth; she was alone in Jacob's temple. Unable to show her images, he thought to try speaking to her.

"You missed our time together," he said. To his surprise, she turned her attention to him. At first he thought maybe she couldn't see him, for she was looking confused, and frightened. And then he stepped forward into the light.

"Why are you here? You should be resting!" she scolded.

"I'm not here," he said. "I'm still in Aten's temple. You're dreaming me."

"But I'm awake."

"Don't question it. Tell me why are you here?"

"I've been waiting for Jacob, I don't know where else to look."

"He has another home, by the ocean on the southern shore. There's a ladder that goes down off a cliff to a cave. You'll find him there. But be careful climbing down. I don't want to lose you."

He let go of her mind, and was instantly back to his resting place. It wouldn't be long now.

...

When his rest was over, the people filed into the temple to witness his awakening. He felt completely renewed, like that first day he'd shot out of the source. Though the projections did take some effort, they were worth it for the loyalty it must have won him. When the stone was tipped he came out in a clicking, flashing display that sent the people to their knees.

Pulling himself together, he took his human form, dressed in a lavish black and gold skirt with a jewel encrusted belt. He wore no shirt but around his neck was a necklace of beads and a Pharaoh crown with a tiny gold jackal ornament that rested on a black turban. The people gasped appropriately.

Kneeling before him, Imotisis looked up, herself a vision of finely adorned beauty.

"It's time," he said.

...

The procession was long, but eight strong men carried them in seats on a platform through the jungle and out into a field where there were stone pillars in a circular form.

"That's new," he said. "Your people have been busy."

"_Our_ people," she corrected and looked sideways at him.

"Indeed. Our people." As they approached he asked, "Why all the way out here?"

"Because I want what is going to happen to be forgotten by those we leave behind."

It was then that he glanced back to see most of the people hadn't followed, there were only a handful following them. Imhotisis was so confident that what she was doing was wrong that she was protecting her people from witnessing it! He gazed at this queen, wondering if like Odyssis, that it was her love for him that drove her to make this evil concession, or if she was more akin to Achilles, tempted by the promised power and glory in Egypt. It didn't matter for the game, but he had to admit, for the sake of his ego, he hoped it was the former.

When they were set down, they stood and he took her hand and lifted it as they walked forward. Nifitis ran the ceremony, speaking loudly of the unfortunate sacrifice that had to be made to ensure the people safety and long life in their return to Egypt. He didn't see any young girls, but really anyone would do, even the men who had bore them. Knowing Jacob was watching, he decided, he wasn't even going to let her go through with it. Like the angel stopping Moses' hand from slaying Aaron, he would save the life of the innocent, and then, as Jacob's rules permitted, he could rightfully kill the queen himself. The thought of taking her soul at the same time as she died sent a wave of ecstasy through him.

He watched her chest rise and fall in emotion as her assistant spoke of the blessings Jacob had given them here, and those promised to them by Anubis when they arrived home. What if she changed her mind and Jacob won? Then he would have to wait for her. Leaving was the ultimate goal and once they were in Egypt, Jacob's rules wouldn't apply. He knew now, he didn't need the energy of a human sacrifice to survive the journey. And he would have her eventually, no matter what she decided today.

"Where's Jacob?" he asked as the large men passed around them into the alter area.

"Watching from afar. Despite how much I told him this gift was necessary for the journey, he wanted nothing to do with it."

He nodded with a smirk, expecting as much.

When they were directed to turn, he saw that on the alter was a cloth covering a male form that lay on a slab of stone. How merciful she was to prepare the victim ahead of time instead of making him walk the long journey. Stepping down into the floor, he saw eight spokes of stone running into the center circle platform that they walked to and stood upon before the alter. Nifitis walked to the other side of the alter and met Imhotisis' eyes. When the queen nodded, her assistant lifted the fabric, revealing the form had been an illusion! There were only pots beneath it which were quickly taken by the eight men.

On the alter now was only his Roman dagger that he'd given her for today.

He looked at her suspiciously and said, "Did you change your mind without telling me?"

She shook her head and turned towards him while around the circumference of the circle, the men lifted eight large jars and began pouring water, creating a pool around them. A twinge of uneasiness filled him. As a man, he could walk through the water, but it was an unnerving touch to the ceremony.

She picked up the dagger and said, "I could never expect one of my people to give such a gift as you've asked... and besides, we both know it's _me_ you want."

The epiphany of her brilliant deception elated him. She hadn't answered his request with a yes _or_ a no... she'd foiled his test and that meant neither he nor Jacob had won.

Amused he laughed and asked, "Did you tell Jacob this was your plan?"

"Actually, I couldn't bring myself to tell him the sacrifice. I knew he would disapprove."

That was a problem, he thought, looking up into cliffs and hills around them. If Jacob didn't know of the sacrifice, he didn't know this was the the test. Anguish on her face, she lifted the dagger to her chest and as he quickly put his hand on hers to stop her, he felt a drop of rain. Looking up, the clouds swirled suddenly dark above them and it immediately began to pour, drenching them in seconds.

"I'll take my chances on the sea _without _your sacrifice," he said, stunning her with his mercy. "It was just a game anyway... The games of the gods test the virtue of men."

Before he could lower her hand, he heard the sound of stone sliding against stone; the men were pulling out the spokes from the platform they were standing on! Suddenly it fell beneath them, dropping them into a pit of darkness. They landed with jolt and Imhotisis let out a cry and fell to a sitting position against the wall on the narrow, round floor.

He looked up, placing his hands against the cold, stone walls, panicked, as the water rushed in around them. And then, a stone landed with a thud, casting them into darkness. Knee deep in water and drenched, he hadn't stood a chance of turning to smoke and escaping, even before the stone had locked them in.

He could see nothing in the pitch darkness until he glanced down at Imhotisis at his feet. Though her glow was as bright as it might be to him in his smoke form, it didn't illuminate the tiny space or her features, rather, it pulsed as if to call him. It was like being near a star in the dark abyss of an empty sky. A quake ran through him...

With barely enough room to squat, he came down to her side in the water. Her breathing wasn't normal.

"Were you hurt?" he asked.

"Yes," she said breathlessly.

He reached out to her light and just before his hand reached it, he felt her hand over her left breast; it was warm and wet. He looked up, and considered how easily he could blast off that stone as smoke, but he couldn't make it happen while standing in all this water. "Why did you do this?" he asked, truly baffled. "We were so close to getting everything you ever wanted!"

"I couldn't... let you corrupt my people," she said. "As you were corrupting me."

"All I wanted was to _leave_," he said. "Everything I did was so that you would go and let me come with you."

"The ends," she said weakly, "do not justify the means."

He stood and felt the sides of the stone, it was the same as his containment.

"I can get through that stone above us, you know. Once the water below us is gone and it's already draining."

"No," she said. "On the other side of that stone alter is carved a basin and it's full of water. In the center of it is a rock and you will only be able to get out, if someone pulls it and let's you out..." She took two short breaths and said, "You are not a god. You are a genie in a bottle. And you will _never_ torture or hurt another living being on this island again."

The full ramifications were starting to sink in. If she was right, he would languish in here, weakening in his human form and worse, she was dying! If he wasn't able to turn to smoke when that happened, her soul would escape him. Letting out a yell he slammed his fists into the side walls. "I should kill you!" he seethed.

"Why don't you? You've wanted to for long enough."

He didn't realize she knew. He looked at her light and realized the lust he'd had for it was nothing compared to his desire for freedom. If he killed her, he'd be subservient to his brother. Those were the rules... Then it occurred to him, the rules!

"_J__acob_ will let me out," he said, confident. "He has to."

"No...he won't," she said with a labored breath. "He knows how evil you are."

Squatting again, he asked, "Did he know about this trap?" She was silent. Impatient he said, "Imhotisis, you should know, Jacob swore to the light; to _Aten_ so he doesn't have a choice. It doesn't matter what you told him, or how evil he thinks I am; he'll be held to his promise. He has to let me roam free until the game is over."

He could hear her heavy breathing and knew she was affected by the truth he told her.

"What is this _game_?" she spat.

"Our wager to see if there are good people who aren't corruptible. Ironically, had you sacrificed Nifitis like I told you, I would have won. Maybe he would have kept me locked up in that case. But as it is, you sacrificing yourself means, neither of us won, and the game continues. So your sacrifice was for _nothing_."

She let out a slight hum and said, "It wasn't a sacrifice, I will live on, in the minds and hearts of my people. They will be gone from this island by now. Even if Jacob foolishly sets you free, I saved them from the agent of Anubis."

Just the tone of her calm voice was vile to him; the brightening light from her, even more so. She was right, they'd likely set her up as a goddess for capturing and killing him. He paused.

"You know," he said. "I always wondered why you didn't just tell me 'no' to the sacrifice. If you had, Jacob would have won. It would have proved that you were not corruptible." He put his hand on her knee and leaned in as he said, "In fact, I _told_ you I wouldn't kill you if you didn't go through with it... I was even going to spare you when I found out you were willing to die for your friend. And yet, you went through with it."

"I didn't trust you," she said quickly. "I wanted to protect my people from you."

"No..." he soothed in his low voice. "Don't forget, I know your heart. I know what you really want is to be a goddess." He let it sink in and saw the light flicker. "I thought I had won when you were actually willing to kill your most loyal servant for it, but something happened... my guess is Jacob got to you. He said something that got you feeling guilty... but instead of just giving up on the desire, you started working out how to get what you want without being condemned for it. And that's when you decided _you_ would be the sacrifice."

Of course what he was saying wasn't completely true. Her light never would have been so bright if she didn't really care about saving her people, but now, he still had a chance to win. All he had to do was convince her of her own dark motives.

"Technically, Imhotisis, you beat my test with a loophole, but don't you dare pretend this had anything to do with saving your people. No... this wasn't about the people you love, it was about _you. _You and your _glory_."_  
_

The dagger didn't hurt, but the fact that she would stab him did. She had every reason to hate him, he was just hoping she'd admit to her darkness and concede. With great effort in her waning strength, she pulled the dagger out of his chest and he felt it go in again as she cried out. She sobbed as she tugged to remove it for a third go at him.

"Here, let me help you with that," he said gently, putting his hand over hers. When he did, he squeezed, wanting to crush her fingers, thinking to just punish her a little for his troubles. Instead of causing her pain, just like with Jacob, his hand went through hers. "Interesting," he said and while in her flesh he could actually feel the sensation of her life fading. He ran his hand up, inside of hers but was kept from the light by the life still in her. She let go of the dagger and pulled her trembling hand away from him.

Removing the weapon from where it was stuck, he put it in his belt and stood.

"Just kill me," she wept. "Get it over with."

"I can't do that," he said, leaning against the wall. The water was down to his ankles now. Where water could flow, so could smoke; if only the basin would be emptied.

"I'm going to die soon anyway..." she said.

"I know," he said. "And you have no idea how much I'm looking forward to it."


	15. The Decision

**Author's Note: Sorry it's taken me so long to get this out. I wanted it to be right and I had a lot going on this week. Thanks again for any reviews!  
**

...

When the sun rose, Jacob was still sitting in the stone circle leaning against one of the knocked over pillars. With his elbows on his knees and the parchment from Imhotisis dangling from his fingers, he glanced sideways at the bodies he'd lined up the night before and thought over all that had happened.

He knew the boats were already back in the water when he'd made the storm that destroyed them, but not that Imhotisis' people were leaving without her, and already in them. Jacob was still sick with guilt.

"This is what she wanted!" Nifisis had shouted to him over the typhoon when he first came down from the cliff. She could barely stand as her dress whipped around her legs.

"Where are they?" he demanded. Nifisis had only struggled to bow and handed him the message.

If he had read the warning on the scroll right then, Jacob might have been able to save her and the guards from the revenge his brother's stranded worshipers took on them. With a heavy heart, unsure of what to do now, he reread it.

"_for the eyes of JACOB whom we have gratefully served and truthfully honor for his gifts and protective watching and by whose grace we have been granted permission to reside upon the isle that is the home of the almighty ATEN _

_from the hand of Imhotisis his servant who has misled her people to place revenge over contentment and by whom this misdeed must be corrected through sacrifice and the containment of evil for the prevention of further corruption_

_if it is the will of ATEN your servant is dead and the evil shadow is now encased in stone and water and may only be released through the removal of the stone in time of great need of aid for protection of the isle of ATEN  
_

_may any evil planned by those whose temptation their queen has permitted to place glory above honor be thwarted by your mighty and just hand_

_Amen"_

His hand was mighty, but it hadn't been just. Jacob glanced at the stone in the basin. She'd even given up her embalming rights as queen; sacrificing not just her body but, according to their religion, her Ka's ability to move on.

Closing his eyes, Jacob put his hand over his forehead. He'd seen her put the knife to her heart, but his brother had grabbed it. She could still be alive. But for how long if Jacob didn't get her out?

And at what cost? After what her people had done, his brother could kill them, or worse, continue to corrupt them.

Imhotisis gave up everything to prevent that and Jacob's thoughts went back to his last meeting with the queen.

...

Fumbling with the strings of a discarded, broken lire, he'd been attempting to repair it when suddenly Imhotisis was on one knee, head bowed at the mouth of his cave. Jacob stood, stunned that she had found him.

"My lord, I come to invite you to a ceremony to pray for a safe journey home for my people."

He didn't even think about. "I don't want to go," he said and sat. "But thank you for inviting me."

"My lord, we will be leaving directly after the ceremony," she said. "Would you not grant your servant one last chance to say good bye on that day? Or must I do so now?"

Hearing her upset, Jacob's own emotions became too much to hold in.

"Why do you want to leave anyway?" he asked. "Everything you've needed, everything you've wanted, is here. If you lack anything, just ask and I'll do what I can."

"You want us to stay?" she asked.

"Yes!" he said. From where she was kneeling it felt awkward to keep talking to her. "Get up," he said and pushed his brother's stool away from the table. "Sit with me."

She did, stiffly and proper, casting her eyes down. "Your servant is pleased my lord has found her people acceptable."

"Not just acceptable," Jacob said. "I like them." She blinked and looked at him curiously, so he explained. "I like Setomas the attendance keeper. He's helped me to understand relationships between your people. He makes me laugh and care at the same time. And your assistant, Nifitis, she seeks me out whenever I visit and is always asking if I need anything... she makes me feel very welcome. And you... Imhotisis. You've taught me more than just the languages and practices of your people. You've opened my understanding of texts I never would have deciphered. And more...watching your judgments and wisdom, I've seen that... sometimes people are so hurt by each other that they don't always know what they need. Sometimes they have to face challenges or work together to figure things out for themselves and like Setomas says," Jacob waved his hand in front of him as he finished, "see past all the pettiness that gets in the way."

When her posture slipped into something more comfortable and her expression softened, she felt more real to him and Jacob continued to speak sincerely.

"I want to make more friends with your people... but if you leave, I won't get that chance." He searched her expression as she looked down with seeming regret. "Did he say something to make you and your people want to leave me and the island?"

Then, as if she had lowered a shield, Imhotisis spoke openly and emotionally about his brother's intentions for them, and the dreams they'd been given. She seemed excited and apologetic; as though she both wanted to go home and feared what would happen when they arrived.

"And here, I thought he wanted to rule Rome," Jacob said, mostly to himself. Seeing her confused expression he said, "Has he asked you for anything in return?" Her nod was followed by a sudden flood of tears and a confession of a sacrifice so he might consume the Ka of a good person. Jacob was as frustrated as he was angry because he'd allowed for such an awful test and promised not to interfere. "Are you going to do it?" he asked.

"I have no choice. To obey the will of a god is the very definition of Ma'at! If I don't do this evil thing, I am evil for disobeying." Jacob put his hand out to take hers, and as soon as he did she went to her knees, begging, "You can tell me not to do it, my lord, and I will obey you and maintain Ma'at."

If Jacob had done as she has asked, he could have avoided everything. But she had to choose it on her own and just looking at her face, Jacob trusted her heart. He pulled his hand out of hers to retrieve one of the newer books.

"I want to read something to you," he said, "From a confessional, written by a man to his god:_From Thee, therefore, I had now learned, that because a thing is eloquently expressed, it should not of necessity seem to be true; nor, because uttered with stammering lips, should it be false..." _Jacob paused and watched her eyes shift. "I'm skipping a bit..." he said and then read, "_That eagerness, therefore, with which I had so long waited for this man, was in truth, delighted with his action and feeling when disputing, and the fluent and apt words with which he clothed his ideas."_ He looked back down at her and waited.

"Are you saying he's lying to us?"

"No. What I'm saying is that whatever he says he's going to do for you isn't as important as what you decide to do for him," he told her. "He can't force you to do anything."

...

Jacob stared at the stone plug. He'd possibly given her the idea for this prison, and even made it more possible. When she'd expressed fear of punishment for disobeying, Jacob promised to come and bring rains to protect her from the smoke. He'd thought it would make her decision be more what she wanted than promise of reward or fear of punishment. He wanted her to do what she felt was right in her heart.

And suddenly Jacob realized, that's what he had to do too.

Getting up he knelt before the basin, put his hand in the cold water and gripped the stone. Whatever his brother did, however angry she would be with him, Jacob couldn't let her die, and he wouldn't break the rules and keep his brother confined, even if he deserved it.

Yanking it up and out, Jacob watched the water drain and stood back from it. He didn't know what would happen. He expected either a small stream of smoke, or that his brother might blast through the stone slab. After a long while, Jacob wondered if possibly there was too much water in the hole and if it might take a long time... he couldn't wait.

He went to the carrying platform and slid out one of the long wooden staffs. With a leveraging technique Jacob had witnessed used by both Incas and Egyptians, he positioned it under the slab where there was an indentation in the stone. It took him several attempts, jamming it in deeper each time, but he was able to slide the heavy slab completely off of the hole.

Again, he waited, and when he decided his brother was not coming out on his own, Jacob slowly stepped closer, peering into the darkness. The sun was still low and the light only came down to half the distance to the bottom.

"Hello?" he called out. There was no answer. Jacob got on his knees and blocking the sun from his eyes with his hand he looked in. There sat Imhotisis at the bottom, motionless, and his heart sank; there were red stains of blood on her clothing and the dagger laid on the stone next to her open hand. He took a couple of deep breaths and shook his head, wanting to deny that his brother would do this, or not prevent it.

His brother. Where was he?

An instant fear came over Jacob at the thought that maybe, something about this containment or breaking the rule had actually destroyed him... or if he had managed to escape.

As he was lamenting what that would mean, something astonishing happened; Imhotisis looked up!

"Jacob?" she said softly.

"Yes! It's me," he said. He looked around, frantically, unsure what to do. Then he called back down and said, "I'm going to get you out!" He started to get up, but saw the dead laying there and feared what his brother's worshipers might do if they came back and found her like this with him nowhere to be found. "I have to cover this back up... I don't want anyone to hurt you... I'll be back, I promise!"

Anguished Jacob spent the rest of the day, searching the village for rope and planning a way to lift her out so she wouldn't be hurt. He'd assured the frightened people he came across that he would return to the village and help them if they could find him a rope. As they gave it to him, he had questioned them and none had seen his brother since the ceremony.

He ran back to the alter, rope and blankets in hand, with a jug of healing water he planed to lower to her in preparation for her removal. To his shock he saw on approach that the stone was now laying on top of and crushing Nifisis and two of the other guards! Rushing to the alter he saw that now Imhotisis was lying there, still, next to the opening, with her eyes closed.

Jacob dropped to his knees, afraid to find out, but as soon as he touched her cold skin, she opened her eyes. "Thank you..." she said. She glanced at her people and the stone atop their dead bodies. "He did that," she said. "He came back after you left..."

She looked at the water jug in his hand and Jacob slowly poured the water on her wound and then gave her a sip. Miraculously, the wound began to close and she lay back and took a deep breath.

"Where is he?" Jacob asked.

"He's not coming back. We hurt him by our betrayal and he wants nothing more to do with me. He wanted to kill me, but said he couldn't... so he brought me up to see that I hadn't saved Nifisis after all." With eyes that almost accused him, she asked, "What happened to them, Jacob?"

Jacob couldn't bear to tell her there, so, ignoring her protests, he carried her back in blankets to his temple. After bathing her wound in the temple spring, giving her a meal and lighting a fire to try to warm her, he told her about destroying the ships. He wept explaining how so many had died and how he feared his brother's worshipers had tortured and killed Nifisis attempting to learn what had happened to their god. He explained how to protect the island, his brother was permitted to kill such evil people, and Jacob was afraid for their lives if he came back.

Her reaction confounded him. Imhotisis seemed sad by his grief, and offered comforting words to sooth him, but she had very little of her own. "Aren't you upset with me?" he asked. "You were willing to die for your people to protect them from corruption... and those that aren't dead are the worst corrupted! They killed Nifisis!"

Imhotisis took in a breath and nodded. "It couldn't be helped, Jacob. You did your best, and they were already corrupted." When she looked away from him into the fire Jacob wondered, was she too afraid of him now to show her true feelings or perhaps she had really given up on the people?

By the next morning she was strong enough to insist she return to her city to gather what was left of her people together. She said it would take a year to build another ship, and after what he'd done, Jacob didn't feel he had the right to keep them. But he couldn't bear to watch them prepare, so he only stayed long enough in the city to witness the proper burial of the dead.

There was no sign of his brother, but after only one week, that wasn't surprising. His brother could have held a grudge for months when they were kids. Jacob had tried to call for him, but since he didn't come, he guessed no rules had been broken; which meant the game was still on. And yet, the people were leaving.

The thought of bringing more people, different people to the island didn't settle well with him, not after Imhotisis and her people were so close. They had made mistakes, but so had he. Maybe they all could learn from them.

Jacob decided he had to at least attempt to talk her out of leaving.

He was met by guards outside the city.

"Imhotisis has asked that before you come to her, you first see your gift from our people," one of them said. "She would like you to evaluate it for ten days and then return if it is satisfactory."

He handed Jacob a scroll that had a map on it with instructions written in hieroglyphics that loosely translated to: "On cool sand, in morning's shadow, under strong foot, behind weak wall."

Jacob nodded at the riddle, feeling something wasn't right, but he was curious and didn't want to seem ungrateful. It was magnificent and standing in front of it, he didn't know why it would take ten days to evaluate it. So much work had gone into building the statue, but it was utterly useless to him. Still, Jacob walked around it's base until he saw on one side there was an entrance. Looking at the hieroglyphics they suddenly made sense. It was a hidden wall, that could be pushed open to be a door. Someone had left it open for him... as if he might not solve the riddle.

He passed inside and saw light pouring down from a gap in the ceiling. There were also several torches around the room. The round hearth in the center caught his attention first and when he approached the sandy pit he noticed a spring of water. Touching it, it was cool and he lifted it to his lips to find it sweet and fresh. As his eyes adjusted he saw the chamber was also furnished! There was a loom and a spinning wheel, a table, chairs and even a bed. On one wall there was painted an image of Isis and on the floor below it was a box.

Jacob opened it and found a scroll sealed with wax. He broke it and read: _"From Nifitis, servant of Imhotisis, who is servant of Anubis. To JACOB servant of ATEN that is the LIGHT and the SOURCE of all MA'AT."_

It was now clear to him that Nifisis understood who he was more than Imhotisis did, and who he was not. Her Latin was much worse than the queens, but the message still understandable.

_"this home built for you that our queen Imotisis desires us to give. the other gifts your servant Nifitis give to you as your interests have been seen in court"_

Jacob's heart felt warmed by her thoughtfulness. He remembered asking Nifisis about the royal spinning wheel. She'd not only shown it to him, but how to use it. The pain of losing her friendship and what she had gone through suddenly pricked his heart again. Imhotisis had seen to giving her a proper burial, but she hadn't sat in judgment over the men who had done it. At the time he'd felt so guilty over the deaths he'd caused unintentionally that he'd not considered her mercy strange until now. Jacob covered his mouth as he read on.

_"this sorry your servant write and leave for you to find if you release Imhotisis from cell as I believe you will she promise to stay on island with you so I may go home on fourth boat _

_though you consider your servant a friend nifisis only stay to lead people left behind if imhotisis die for she will not leave you alone without companion and only evil shadow"_

There was an image drawn on the bottom of the page of the statue and four boats sailing away from the island. On the island itself there were three people, a white man, a black man and a woman dressed as Isis.

Jacob frowned. If there was already another boat built somewhere, why did Imotisis say she had to take a year to build another... and if she planned on staying, why was she still trying to leave now that Nifisis was dead? It made no sense and he wasn't going to wait another ten days to confront her.


	16. Possession

Jacob was coming. He couldn't see him, but he could tell by the disruption of the men outside the temple. It would be a huge set back; two weeks was not enough rest before the long trip, especially with all the energy he had to use up keeping these people set on leaving.

Below him, Imhotisis lay, still, pale and perfect. He was about to wake her to let her deal with Jacob when his brother burst in more quickly than expected. The guards were good for nothing.

One of them at least attempted to stop Jacob with his staff, which Jacob took and threw across the temple. Jacob then picked up the man, turned him upside down and stuck him head first into a large vase. His weight turned it on it's side and he easily climbed out, but was shaken.

"I'm going in to speak with Imhotisis, now," Jacob announced. "Does anyone else have a problem with that?"

They all exited immediately.

Jacob cautiously approached the front of the temple, and when he saw Imhotisis, he went right to her, knelt and tried to wake her.

"She's in a trans," he called from the other room. "I'm in here, if you want to talk." He wasn't sure if his illusion would work on Jacob until his brother walked in.

"Where have you been?" Jacob asked.

"Resting," he said. He'd gotten good at faking a projected image of himself and he leaned his elbow on the alter.

More angry than sad, Jacob asked, "You were really going to leave without saying goodbye?"

He looked down and away, of course he was, it was obvious. He mumbled a diversion, "Thanks for letting me out of the trap."

"Your welcome," Jacob said. "Did she pass your test?"

"No, she did not." He raised his brows and looked at his brother, admitting with chagrin, "She didn't fail it though."

Jacob towards the other room as he said, "She told me you didn't want anything else to do with her. Did you change your mind?"

Standing up away from the alter he said, "I have no choice but to... be involved with her. Her people are my only way off the island." Jacob's expression and silence made him nervous. "What?"

"I can't let you leave," Jacob whispered, then he looked up for the response.

He took an other step towards his brother and narrowed his eyes. "You can't _let_ me leave? What's that supposed to mean?"

"What happened to you is my fault. So what you do with your powers becomes my responsibility. I can't let you corrupt the the world like you did the people here. It would be irresponsible."

Taking a few emotional breaths he gestured as he exclaimed, "I only helped along what would have happen anyway, Jacob. I focused their vanity into something productive. _All_ great leaders do this."

"Not Imhotisis," Jacob said. His admiration of her was obvious. "She was even willing to sacrifice herself for the good of her people."

"She was the _worst_ of all! She abandoned her own principles so _she_ could be a god! And when she realized what she'd done, she blamed me for it. Trapping me wasn't about protecting her people, it was about sending them home to make her a legend back in Egypt! She was just like Achilles, Jacob... She chose glory over love."

He could see it disturbed Jacob, but he didn't doubt it. Jacob looked down and said, "Why she did it doesn't matter. What matters is what I choose to do... and I she was right, you are evil, and I can't let..."

Before Jacob could finish, he backed out of the illusion and thrust himself into the queen, causing her to scream. As he expected, Jacob rushed in, frantic and came to her side, but seemed afraid to touch her.

With one hand at her throat and the other reaching out to Jacob, the words left her lips barely audible, "Help me."

Jacob looked at the stone above her and pushed it up, but it was too late, there was nothing left of his smoke inside. Looking out from her eyes he saw his brother's concerned expression. Resting inside of her flesh he could feel Jacob's hands caressing her cheeks. Warmth. It was something he couldn't feel with his illusion of a body... he smiled at his brother, with her smile.

When his brother smiled back, he sucked a breath into her dead lungs and then rolled away from Jacob and under the stone to the other side of the platform. He stood her up, and Jacob stood too. With the large slab of stone between them, he felt safer.

"Are you alright?" Jacob asked.

He nodded her head.

Animating Imhotisis in front of her people had been simple and affective. He understood her relationship with them and her feelings came easily as he drew on them to make the interactions believable. With Jacob, it was different. The mixture of his own feelings for his brother conflicted with hers in a way that was extremely uncomfortable. He couldn't put himself away around Jacob.

"Did he hurt you?" Jacob asked.

"Not as badly as I've hurt him." He'd become used to hearing her voice speak the words he formed, but seeing Jacob's strong reaction was unnerving. His brother believed this lie as much as the illusion in the other room.

"I've been trying to make it up to him," he made her say. "He isn't as evil as I thought. I want to help him now."

"He is evil, though," Jacob said. "But he didn't used to be."

"What do you mean?"

Jacob started to walk around the stone towards her and wanting to keep distance, he walked her up to the throne and sat down. Looking down on her, Jacob spoke openly and with tenderness he hadn't heard from his brother since they were very young.

"He's always wanted something more than this island could give him. That hasn't changed." As he continued, Jacob sat on the chair Nifisis used at times. "But when we became as we are... he lost something."

He felt the loss Jacob was talking about, and was anxious to hear Jacob's explanation.

"I never told you about the woman who raised me," he said. "She was like I am now, protecting this island. And she told me that everyone has a little bit of Light in side of them. As if, the Ka of Aten shared a little bit of himself with us, making true Ma'at written on the scroll of your heart."

Jacob searched her face for understanding and he nodded her head giving it.

"With him... it's almost as if he lost all the light that was given him. He used to know ma'at, when we were young. And even when we grew up, I believe he care about it. But now..." Jacob shook his head and gazed at the resting stone as he said, "If doing what's right gets in the way of his plans, he doesn't want to do it... and doesn't see why he should have to."

If by doing what was right Jacob meant his stupid rules, that was exactly how he felt. He looked away from him as Jacob went on.

"He's very pragmatic and doesn't just chaotically destroy things, but when he does decide to hurt someone... he has no problem justifying it." Jacob looked at her and said, "He has no remorse. And until that changes, I can't let you take him with you. I can't expose the world to his powers when his intentions are so twisted."

He spoke the truth in her voice as she would have said it, "I agree, Jacob. I never wanted to bring him with me." He made her stand and Jacob stood as well. "We'll leave immediately," he said in her voice. "We'll leave Anubis behind."

"I don't think you or your people should go either," Jacob said. "Everything you need is here. If you go back to Egypt, you're only going to be exiled and unable to worship Aten as you want."

"You plan to keep us here against our will?"

"If I have to," Jacob said. "But let me try to convince you to stay... so you can make the right choice on your own."

"It doesn't sound like you're offering us a choice," she said, backing away from him. "I can stay on my own or against my will, but either way I have to stay."

"Sometimes people don't know what's best for them, you taught me that."

Glaring at him with his own feelings, he seethed, "And you think you know what's best for people better than they do?"

"Maybe," Jacob said gently. He moved towards her and even when she backed away and stood against a wall, he came close, hovering over her. Being this small and frail in front of his large brother, he was more intimidated than he'd ever been. He couldn't imagine how it was for Imhotisis living in this body and being as confident as she always was.

"I would never hurt you," Jacob said. He ran his hands over her shoulders and down her arms. "Why are you trembling? Why are you afraid of me."

When he looked up at Jacob and felt what she would have, though he hadn't eaten sincerely in centuries, he wanted to vomit.

"Please let go of me," he said in her voice, but his tone. Jacob did as he was asked and he slipped her away from him and walked a few paces, taking in breaths to calm his disgust.

"What's wrong?" Jacob asked.

"We're leaving," she announced, unable to look at him. "And if you kill us for that, then you are more evil than your brother."

"My brother?" Jacob said.

He felt an icy chill at his slip up, but went with it, tuning in to that confidence she exuded. "Yes. He told me everything." He tried to make her sound upset about it, though he could feel she wouldn't have been, she would have understood. "And I know enough that it's _you_ I should be frightened of, not him."

Even to himself that didn't sound believable.

"I see," Jacob said calmly.

He tried to walk her past and away from Jacob, back out to the people, but his brother came right up to her animated body and grabbed her arm and then reached down with his other hand and took hers.

"Why are you so cold?" Jacob demanded. When he suspiciously squeezed her fingers, the solidness of her flesh held it's form, but his ability to maintain the animation was slipping away as Jacob figuring out something wasn't right.

"Are you Imhotisis?" Jacob asked. He couldn't help but glare back hatefully. With pain Jacob said, "She would never look at me like that."

And then, he saw a shadow enter the room and with it, the sound like a whisper passed by them and then it was gone. He hadn't understood it, but Jacob's expression changed to recognition. And then fury lit up in his brother's eyes.

"You..." Jacob said. He picked up her body by the shoulders and said, "You _did_ kill her!"

"No," he said, lifting her delicate hands to grip his wrists. "I'm only borrowing her body."

"COME OUT OF IT!" Jacob shouted, pushing her away so that he stumbled. The command was strong and he felt it pulling him, but he held on. He wasn't giving up this taste of life without a fight.

"I didn't kill her, Jacob, but she is dead." Looking up at his brother he warned, "If you cast me out I'll never bring her back... you'll never get to speak with her again like this... you'll never get to touch her or know her thoughts..."

"This is an illusion..." Jacob countered. "A lie..."

Raising her hands he said, "Only partly. I took her thoughts and her feelings and I can share them with you just as she would have."

Thinking on that Jacob's chin quivered and he looked away, torn. He did miss her.

"She loved you, Jacob," he said. Jacob closed his eyes and stepping forward he took her tone and brought up the feelings she had, as pungent as they were to him. "I've never admired a man more than I have you, Jacob. If I had my life to live over again, I would have wanted to stay with you, to be yours... to serve you and to be your friend." He reached her hands up to Jacob's shoulder and said, "Please, if you know my heart, you understand how much I love my people and how much they need me... more than you do. I would sacrifice what I want for their needs. Let me take them home. Please don't keep us here."

Through his clenched teeth Jacob said, "Because you lied to me... because you broke the rules..." He turned on him with wet eyes and said, "you _have_ to listen... get out of her!"

It hurt, but Jacob must not have wanted it badly enough, because he had no trouble resisting.

"You broke rules too, Jacob... you let her lock me up..."

"It's not the same..."

With Imhotisis conviction he made her say, "We trusted you and you killed my people!"

He couldn't tell if Jacob was going to break down or or attack, but he was certainly losing control. "You're not her!" he hissed.

As ugly as it was, he had to try to push him; guilt was the only thing he could think of to get Jacob to let him leave now.

"You're right, I'm not her," he said in his own tone. "This body died in my arms and as her Ka left her flesh, Imhotisis believed that she would be trapped for eternity here on this island, just like me. Stuck, unable to return home."

Jacob's hands went to his head with the penalty of his remorse weighing on him.

"I can undo what you've done, Jacob," he said. "Let me and those that are left take Imhotisis body and the others that died. We can bring them back to Egypt. And maybe... maybe her Ka will come too. And it can be properly pass on... you wouldn't have to think about what you did to them anymore."

"NO!" Jacob shouted. "You're lying."

"But what if I'm not!" he shouted, startling Jacob. "You took a chance letting me out of that trap. Why not take a chance and let me off the island?"

Jacob composed himself and then said calmly, "I won't take _that_ chance. You've done nothing to deserve it."

With as much force as he could, he reached up her hand and slapped his brother. Jacob touched his face in surprise that he could feel it. He went to strike him again and Jacob grabbed her wrist.

"Ouch," he said putting her pretty face in Jacob's, "I can actually feel your grip while I'm in this body." He raised her brows and said, "You could really hurt me, Jacob. How would you like that? How would you like to finally be able to punish me again... just like before?"

Jacob looked tempted and let go. He went on, hoping to push him into doing more he'd regret.

"Go ahead, Jacob, what's stopping you this time? I'm not her, you said so yourself. I'm the one who let her suffer as she slowly died... and did I mention, I enjoyed it more than when I killed mother?"

Jacob looked horrified.

"I did," he insisted. "When Imhotisis was almost gone... I sat down and took her in my arms, holding her on my lap." He wrapped her arms around her body and demonstrated. "And I squeezed so that the last thing she felt was me, enveloping her essence... I couldn't turn to smoke in that cage, so I couldn't hold on to her Ka for long, but I took it long enough to feel her agony... and I don't mean physical pain, but the knowledge of knowing, neither you nor Aten could save her from me... she'd lost her soul to me." He took in a mimicked breath and let it out slowly. "And you were right, she was good and pure and taking her was ecstasy."

That did it.

He expected to begin feeling the injury of blows to his face again, but instead, Jacob grabbed her wrist again and turned her arm behind her back, pushing her ahead of him as he nearly carried her out of the temple. The guards weren't alone now and when Jacob threw her to the ground he looked up through her eyes at the frightened people, trying to show his own fear of Jacob and of them, hoping to get their sympathy.

"That is not your queen," Jacob said, his voice cracking. "The god you call Anubis has taken her... possessed her and is using her to manipulate you."

They looked at her and she shook her head, "He's lying!" With her slender, pale finger he pointed at his brother and cried, "His name is Jacob and every one of you knows that means deceiver in Hebrew. He killed our people, all Anubis ever wanted was to leave this island and restore our nobility!"

Jacob looked at the people and said, "Where is Anubis now? If he's not in her, call him."

Pleading, she said, "Anubis is resting for the journey, he can't come... you know this, we told you this."

Jacob looked at the people and said, "You can believe me and stay on the island, as my guests. Or you may go but..." Jacob pointed at her and he could feel the command taking hold on him before his brother even spoke it. "Leave her behind. Nifisis wrote to me and that it was what Imhotisis wanted."

He pulled out a scroll from his pocket and handed it to one of the more learned men. As choppy Latin was read out loud, all his plans began to darken.

"My assistant betrayed me," he pleaded in the queen's voice. "That was not the plan... Jacob wrote that message to himself to fool you."

The guard looked at her and said, "Nifisis bid me to leave that message for Jacob in his home, should she die." He lifted his staff and said, "The queen I served would understand what I am about to do." To everyone's shock, he plunged the pointed end of it into her chest.

The pain was excruciating and he felt the body convulsing and screamed as she would have. When he reached out and grabbed it, snarling at the guard, another one came forward and stuck his staff into her in the shoulder. That screamed came out more like the sound of his smoke cry than a human voice.

When that third staff stuck into her gut it was more pain and insult than he could bear and with a violent shaking, he left her and soared up as high as he could go. On his way back down he saw her body rotting instantly and turn to ash under the guards' staffs, but just as he was about to kill them, he was deflected and dispersed by Jacob's raised hands.

"Leave these people alone!"

There was no resisting that command and he fled.

...

The rage he felt was pointless and felt aimless. As soon as he tried to come close to any of the people or the places they frequented, the overwhelming ache to obey Jacob's command took over and he could do nothing with it. Unable to destroy anything that meant something to anyone, he took out his frustration on random trees and cobbling what was left of his old temple. But it was a waste of energy.

So he eventually settled down and spent his time moving about the part of the island he could roam in, too far to see what Jacob was up to with the people except for the fire that burned their boat and village. And sometimes he took his human form and sat on the stone bench thinking about what his brother had done to him, their wager, the rules... and how close he had been to the only thing that mattered to him anymore. And how Jacob was going to make sure he never got it.

Jacob had said he'd changed, but he didn't feel different. He still wanted what he always had and he still felt contempt for people with all their mixed motives and selfishness. He _had_ to corrupt them. No one would help him off the island unless he did. Just because he had powers nobody else had didn't mean he was more wrong for doing what they did; everyone only looked out for themselves.

Everyone except Jacob.

And yet, the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that Jacob caring for these people and this stupid island couldn't all be selfless. Even if it was all just to give him some sick sense of superiority, Jacob had his reasons as well. And soon it made sense to him that Jacob had to keep him here; if he didn't, Jacob wouldn't have anyone else to compare himself to, and alone, there would be nobody left for him to feel better than. How was it good if being right meant more to Jacob than his own brother's happiness and freedom?

Jacob was just like everyone else! Only, he was worse because he pretended to be good, which justified everything he did, even murder!

"May I join you?" The female voice was familiar, but impossible. He looked up and didn't see her at first, but when she materialized, he recognized her and his heart sank. She was the last person in the world he wanted to see, but how could he say no?

He nodded.

When the beautiful dark haired woman in red walked towards him, she almost glided to his side before she sat. He glanced at her, feeling ashamed, for some reason.

"You seem very sad," she said.

"I failed you," he said. "I didn't get our people home, I got them all killed... myself included."

"Not all of them," she said. He glanced to see her rosy lips smirk and knowing amusement danced in her dark eyes. It reminded him of Jacob. "Your Your brother's still alive," she said.

"Yeah, well he hates me," he said. "Do you see what he did to me, how I am now?"

"I see," she said. "But he doesn't hate you."

He stared ahead, the bitterness in his chest not wanting to accept his mother's words. His real mother... "Why are you still here?" he asked. "Why haven't you moved on yet?"

"There's no yet or here where I am," she said. "Unlike with those who are trapped."

"Jacob trapped me."

"He didn't mean to," she said. "And he wants to fix it. That's what he's working to do right now..." She stood and said, "Come. I want to show you something."

He didn't get up. As much as he felt affection for this spirit who had given him life before hers was brutally taken from her, he remembered what happened last time. She noticed he wasn't coming and tilted her head, looking on him with pity.

"Why did you show me that village when I was a boy?" he asked. He wanted to be angry with her, but hurt was all he could feel. "You ruined my life."

"You would have found them eventually," she said. "You're too clever not to... And nothing different would have happened except..." She reached out to touch him as she said, "You would have thought that nobody cared about you enough to tell you." He could actually feel her hand on his cheek; it wasn't warm, but it was a loving connection. "And now, at least you have me. I know what you want and if you come with me, I will show you what your brother is doing and why you should start trusting him again."

It wasn't out of believing her as much as curiosity that he went but when he saw she was taking him to the field where the Anubis alter was, he stopped in his tracks at the edge.

"I'm not going anywhere near that thing... not after what they tried to do to me last time."

"There's nobody here now but me. Do you think I want to hurt you?"

He shook his head and after a few moments, reluctantly followed. The stone circle was gone but the basin remained in the center of what was only dirt and mud now. There was also a stone slab with etchings on it that he couldn't read.

"How am I able to get close to this?"

"Because I brought you," she said as if that should explain it.

He looked at the basin and then around the area and said, "Where's all the stone?"

"He took it to the light," she said. "He's trying to find a way to set you free... to undo what happened to you. He's risking everything to do it... even his own life."

Just as she said it, the ground began to tremble and his mother disappeared. He backed away from the basin and looked around, feeling strange; empty and suddenly terribly alone. He held his hands up in front of his eyes and they were transparent. When he tried to turn to smoke, he couldn't.

For an instant he thought, maybe Jacob was doing it and he took off running for the bamboo forest. Just like when he was alive, he couldn't find his way through; even following the streams only led him out of it and not to the cave. All the while, the ground would shake in bursts under his feet. The sky above him began to darken and sudden panic and regret took hold of him. That light... the beautiful light, his brother was going to put it out... for him?

"Jacob!" he shouted and then lost his footing, tumbling down a hill into the grass and landing on his back. Looking up at the sky he saw the dark cloudy sky slowly fade to black and just when he thought he would finally lose consciousness and cease to exist in this world, a light wind blue the darkness away and stars became visible above him. He stared at them, watching them move in front of his eyes as if time was flowing differently and faster and then the sky grew bright again.

He lay there like that, watching time pass, unable to move until he saw, standing over him, his brother; haggard and emotional. When he got to his knees, Jacob touched him and shook him. He blinked and for the first time in days turned his head. When he did, he felt a sudden rush of energy fill him again.

"What did you do?" he said hoarsely.

Jacob shook his head. "It didn't work," he said. "I had to stop..."

Sitting up, he looked at Jacob and his brother sat beside him on the grass.

"Stop what?" he asked.

Jacob shook his head and blinked. "I'm sorry."

Not sure what to say, he just nodded. They sat there like that, in silence until he thought to ask, "Where are the people?"

Jacob shook his head again and said, "They didn't make it. There was an explosion..."

"You killed them too?" he asked.

"I gave them a choice... they knew the risks. They thought it was worth it. They were good people."

"And that makes it okay to kill them?"

He glared at him and said, "I was trying to fix what I did! To stop the evil from..." he gestured at him and said, "Infecting you." He sighed and shook his head again. "At least it won't happen to anyone else."

"What won't?" he asked. Jacob looked at him. "I don't even know what happened to me!"

"You were changed... your ka... or spirit... or... what you call essence was merged or taken over by... evil. I think in the same way that there is light and good in most people, there is evil too. And when you went into the light, the darkness overtook you - came into you. Personified you." Jacob looked over his face and said, "I don't even know if you're you anymore."

"Of course I'm me, Jacob."

"You're not my brother, not the man I knew... the person I grew up with. He would never have done the things you're doing. He wanted to leave, but... he wouldn't have enjoyed what you did to Imhotisis... he wouldn't have said the things you said."

Standing he looked down at Jacob and said, "Maybe I did change, maybe when you killed me - but I know who I am..."

"You imitated Imhotisis," Jacob said.

"But I knew I wasn't her when I was animating her... I remember growing up with you... that was MY life..."

"Do you remember hers too," Jacob said. He nodded. "Well, see, there's the dilemma."

He didn't think it possible, but Jacob's rejection actually hurt worse than his refusal to let him leave. When Jacob looked up at him there was almost no emotion in his eyes as he listened. "I'm dead, I have no body, I'm trapped here, and I'm not even your _brother_ anymore? So now what, Jacob? What do I have left?"

Jacob stood as well and said, "Well... we could continue the wager we started."

He let out a laugh and put his hands on his hips. "I only agreed to that to get out from under your commands."

"I can't promise not to give you orders again, that was really very foolish of me. But so long as you play by the rules I set, I don't see why we can't be civilized... friends even."

"If I don't get anything out of it, I'm not playing."

"Alright," Jacob said. "Suit yourself." He leaned over and picked up a couple of tools he must have set down.

"What's that?" he asked.

"A stone chisel," Jacob said. "I have work to do, before the next people arrive... so, if you'll excuse me."

Jacob started to walk away and he tried to follow, but couldn't. Calling out he said, "It doesn't matter how many people you bring here... the same thing's going to happen." Jacob lifted his hand and waved dismissively. "People are more like me than you, Jacob. You can't win! They'll just all end up dead again!"

Jacob stopped walking and turned. He came back a few steps and with a smirk he said, "Death isn't the end and it's not worse than living... it's better."

"How do you know?" he demanded. "How do you know anything about death that I don't."

"You're not dead," Jacob said. "You're undead. Only the dead know the end of war and suffering." He was about to protest when Jacob added, "You're not the only one who's spoken to Claudia, my mother. She's not suffering anymore. It's beautiful where she is, and soon, she'll go into the light. I've asked her to stop waiting for me."

"She's my mother too!" he shouted as Jacob walked away again. "Maybe she's waiting for _me_!" This time Jacob didn't stop. He thought over what the ghost had said to him, how she had treated him like her son. Jacob was wrong, he had to be.

He wanted to find her again, to ask, and he waited at his stone bench for her in his human form for as long as he could. Then he faded into smoke and searched. But she wasn't anywhere on the island in a manifestation he could recognize. Any of the spirits still here shrank from him when he came near before he could recognize who they were; but he felt they were unfamiliar.

And after weeks went by, he came across Jacob again, near the hole in the wall where he'd entered before. Jacob was chiseling something into the stone and stopped when he took his human form.

"Hello," Jacob said.

"What's it say?" he asked.

"Just a warning," Jacob said. "To keep people out of your way." Jacob put the chisel in the satchel around his shoulders and said, "I'm glad you're here, I've been wanting to give you something when you were ready."

Jacob slipped into the hole and once inside lit a torch and led them through to and down a narrow stairwell. On the bottom level there were more hieroglyphics on pillars and at the end was a grate in the floor.

"The Egyptians and I did this for you." He lifted up the torch and there on the wall was his resting stone, broken, but sealed. Jacob gestured to the grate and said, "I'm assuming you can pass through those holes to the cavity within." He looked at him and said, "Nobody will know when you're in there... you'll have privacy when you rest."

Hesitant to be trapped he glanced at Jacob and could see his glow in the darkness. It didn't feel like a trap; he was sincere.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" he asked. "What do you want?"

Jacob didn't answer directly, only said, "When I finish at the wall, I'm going home. If you want to visit, we can talk on the beach."

"Talk about what?"

"Whatever you want, my friend," Jacob said. He was so distant. He really was separating himself. "If you want, I can give you some literature to pass the time?"

He shook his head.

"I'll leave you be," Jacob said. "Don't be too surprised if I summon you."

When Jacob left and he tried out the resting stone. It was just as Jacob said, but it wasn't before long that he felt water, dripping into his stone, waking him.


	17. An Honest Friend

**Author's Note: This is the final chapter to this story, and likely to any Lost stories I write. It was very difficult to let this end, but I have other obligations I need to get to and it does feel like I covered everything I needed to. Thanks to everyone who's been reading and especially those who take the time to leave a review. It's made writing so much more worth while!**

...

Having Ricardo around was more pleasant than Jacob had anticipated. Unlike the Egyptians or the Vikings after them, this new friend didn't assume he was a god. And unlike the Danes who had been here most recently, he wasn't rude or demanding.

Ricardo was humble and respectful, and yet he freely spoke his mind as if he was an equal. It was refreshing, though his questions were exasperating at times.

"If I'm to work for you, I should understand what it is you are protecting," Ricardo insisted as they walked.

Today Jacob had made the mistake of opening up about his mother being the one to pass on the job to him before she died. He hadn't gotten very far when the questions started coming and Ricardo wasn't pleased when Jacob held anything back.

"I have worked for men before, Jacob, I know it is easier and better the more informed a man is about what he is doing." Jacob stopped at the stone pillars around the well without answering. He watched Ricardo who waited for a moment and then, added, "How do you have these powers... What exactly are you protecting?"

Jacob was tempted to go back on his decision never to tell anyone details about the Source until he was ready to pass on his job, but he'd seen what knowing about it had done to his brother and while Ricardo didn't strike him as the type to get obsessive over power, like the Danes, Jacob had made him immortal. Just as his brother had been immortal. Even with the plug in place he feared if Ricardo went down there and took it out... his soul might some how be transformed by evil and trapped as his brother's was. He wouldn't take that risk.

"I'm protecting the island. And the island gave me powers to do that job."

"The island?" Ricardo asked. Jacob nodded and Ricardo looked away. And then asked dubiously, "Protect it, from whom... _him_? He has powers too."

"From him and others who might want to hurt the island."

"Hurt it how?" he asked.

Jacob shrugged. "However. There's not much job description."

"Well, why bring people here at all then?" Ricardo asked. "Why not just keep everyone away?"

"I did do that a few times, for hundreds of years each!" Jacob said. "It's not as easy as it sounds."

"_Hundreds_ of years?" Ricardo asked. Jacob nodded and watched it sink in. "Why was it not easy?"

"Do you think I should I have allowed your ship to continue?"

Ricardo blinked, as if confused.

"Would you have preferred to remain a slave for the rest of your life?" Jacob asked.

"I thought you said you brought us here to prove him wrong?"

"That's not what I asked you," Jacob said.

"No. I would not prefer to be a slave," he said and then added sternly, "But the others were all killed by the smoke. I would not have chosen my freedom over their lives."

The subtle judgment in his tone put Jacob on edge. "There's always risk," he defended. "But you should know, he only killed them because they started to kill the slaves. I didn't know they would do that. I've never seen people kill slaves when they come here, they usually need them... and I certainly didn't know that of all the people on the ship, _you_ would try to kill _me_."

Ricardo was stunned into silence; Jacob hadn't brought up what he'd done since that day.

"I knew there was risk," Jacob continued. "But everything happens for a reason; including me seeing and wanting to help you. I went with it... even though I didn't see the important part you would play in what I do here. But the island knew, and that's why it showed you to me."

"How did it show you?" Ricardo asked.

"I get visions... what the island wants me... _needs_ me to see."

Ricardo gave a subtle nod and said, "I... I... I'm sorry for what I did. For listening to him... I knew it was wrong. I just..."

"I know you're sorry," Jacob said. "I don't hold it against you and I hope you won't hold my flaws and mistakes against me. It's good to forgive, just as we want to be forgiven."

With wide eyes Ricardo said, "That is in scripture... did you mean to quote the Bible?"

Sometimes Jacob spoke things he'd read without realizing it, so he wasn't surprised. "The Bibelen?" Jacob asked. "I believe that's what the men from Denmark who built this well called it. To me it's just a few scrolls that washed up on shore a long, long time ago."

"Do you believe in God?" Ricardo asked.

Carefully Jacob said, "I believe there is a Light that is the Source of Goodness and Love. And that the Light can overcome the darkness."

Ricardo smiled and said, "That is in John, my favorite gospel."

"In the book of John it also says that the Light is given to every man who comes into the world." Ricardo nodded. "This I believe," Jacob said. He so much wanted to add that it was this Light that he was protecting, but Jacob left it at that, smiled back and let the metaphor stand.

Ricardo let go a pleased sigh and then glanced towards the well and asked, "Why would anyone dig a well on an island with so many fresh streams?"

"It's not a water well," Jacob said. "I brought you here because this is one of the many places we have to keep hidden."

"Why?"

"Because last time someone went down there, they never came back."

"Then why don't you fill it in?" Ricardo asked, looking into it.

Jacob looked down the hole with him and thought about all the work that would be. He stuck his jaw out and glanced at Ricardo, who met his eyes.

"I know that look. You're going to ask me to do it, aren't you?"

"It was your idea," Jacob said.

Gesturing to Jacob, Ricardo said, "You brought my ship to the center of this island on a wave and you can't fill in a hole?"

"I told you there are risks when I use my powers... that wave destroyed a very special gift to me and other times I've moved land people have died and... I only brought your ship in that way because your captain was so impatient and desperate to reach land that he was sending in boats and..." Jacob didn't exactly understand what happened to the men; why they had disappeared and came back shot, so he stopped and just said, "I had to act before more people were killed... But this job," he said gesturing to the well. "It doesn't matter how long it takes." Pausing with a smirk he crossed his arms and added, "You'll find immortality puts such tasks in a different perspective, Ricardo."

Ricardo shook his head and spoke something to himself in his own language. Jacob was beginning to understand, and knew it wasn't very nice, so he asked with a grin, "What did you just call me?"

Ricardo lifted his brows above his dark eyes and said, "I agreed to be your representative to the people you bring to the island. I did not agree to manual labor. If you want more, I want to be paid for it. Otherwise don't lecture me on my great rescue from slavery."

Jacob stared for a moment and then chuckled again. He was more fearless than any captain, queen or king Jacob had ever met.

"What's so funny?" Ricardo asked. "Am I to be your jester too?"

Jacob shook his head and said, "I'm not laughing _at_ you."

"It seems that way," Ricardo retorted.

"You want to be paid?" Ricardo nodded. "In what, coconuts... mangoes... the fish I catch for us every day?" Jacob asked. "What would you do with gold or coins if I had some to give? And what more could I possibly offer you than eternal life?"

Unimpressed, Ricardo picked up his shirt at his chest and said, "These clothes stink! And sleeping on the beach while you're in the statue was fine for a while, but I want to build myself a home. I know there are boars on this island and other food - and while I am grateful for the portions you share I would prefer some time to myself to hunt and gather my own." He gestured at the well and said, "This... this would take months."

"So you want me to pay you with better food and a house?"

"No! I don't expect you to provide these things for me, only to allow me the time I need to provide for myself. I don't know what payment I want for the labor... I... I just think it should be fair." Ricardo looked down, discouraged.

Jacob looked back in the well and had to agree, it was a lot to ask.

"How about this," Jacob said. "I'll help you build a home, and teach you to hunt boar and you help me fill the well... you don't have to do it by yourself, I know ways to make the task lighter." Ricardo thought about it and then nodded. "And.." Jacob went on, "I'll make you something else to wear if you help me gather the flax for the thread I'll need."

"Thread... you'll make it?" Ricardo asked with a smile. "You know how to do that? To make fabric?"

"I made this," Jacob said, with a gesture to his own tunic.

"How long will it take you?"

"Not long... months, if I did nothing else," Jacob said. Then it occurred to him, "You know, there may be some clothes left over from people who used to live here but they aren't anything like what you're wearing." He thought about how the scrolls had come and said, "And I might be able to get something you're used to."

"I would be very grateful for anything, of course... it's very generous of you. I should not have been so skeptical. I'm sorry."

Feeling very satisfied with Ricardo's reception Jacob said, "If in the future you need anything, especially in the course of doing your job, you only have to ask and I'll see what I can do."

"I feel... selfish having asked for payment to help... I have not met men so honest as you."

"Well, Ricardo, me either," Jacob said.

"May I ask you for a favor now?" Ricardo said with a genuine smile. Jacob gestured for him to go ahead. "Can we start with the hunting soon? I can't look at another fish."

"Yes," Jacob said with a laugh. "Of course."

...

Ricardo's bouncing gate was full of anticipation as they walked to find weapons left by previous cultures. Jacob knew how to carve spears, but it would take a long time and Ricardo was proving in many ways to be without much patience. It had been a century or more since Jacob had bothered to hunt boar, but his new friend's excitement was contagious and Jacob found himself actually looking forward to the effort as well as the meal.

After not finding anything the entire afternoon, they both decided a morning hunt would be best and while laying by the fire that night on the beach, Jacob was about to fall asleep when Ricardo started in on his questions again.

"Those who went into the well, how did they die?"

Sleepily Jacob yawned and said, "Apparently they didn't die..."

Ricardo laid there in silence for a while before he said, "I don't understand."

"I thought they died, but now, thanks to the ship you came in on, I realized they must have went somewhere else."

"Through tunnels?" Ricardo asked. "Like those you told me about?"

"No..." Jacob turned his head and looked past the dying fire to Ricardo. "Ships, like the one you came on, have a wheel at the helm that controls the rudder to direct where it moves."

"Yes," Ricardo said.

"The island has a helm and it's down there, in that well."

After a long pause Ricardo said, "Another metaphor."

"No," Jacob said, facing the stars again. "There's actually a wheel down there that moves the island. I just don't know what happens to the person who turns it." When Ricardo didn't immediately ask another question, Jacob glanced over and saw Ricardo glaring at him.

"Do I look like a fool?" Ricardo asked.

"No," Jacob said.

Ricardo didn't move, just laid there with his hands behind his head, continuing to glare.

"I can show you," Jacob said. "I have to go down there anyway to seal the entrance before we fill it in... In case we want to use again."

"To move the island?"

"Yes."

"Right," Ricardo said and now looked into the sky. "And you don't know where we will go, but you know we won't die, because of the ship I came on."

"Right," Jacob said. He was going to have to learn Spanish more purposefully because he was really curious for what Ricardo said when he was angry. When he settled and was quiet again, Jacob said, "Why are you mad?"

"Because when I ask you a question, I am more confused by your answer than if I don't ask. But if I don't ask, how am I to do my job?"

"I'm sorry," Jacob said. "I haven't spent a lot of time explaining things to other people. You're my first assistant." Ricardo glanced at him and Jacob thought he saw a glimmer of kindness that hadn't been there the moment before. "Can I try again?" Jacob asked.

"Yes, please," Ricardo said.

"Remember the white rock I gave you to give to the man you met who was dressed in black?"

"Yes..." Ricardo said. "I remember."

"That's how I know," Jacob said. "The ship you came in on was..."

In epiphany, Ricardo sat up and said, "The Black Rock!"

"Yes," Jacob said. "And the captain we buried was Magnus Hanslo. He had the same last name as a man who lived here nearly two hundred years ago. The first man I brought here on a Danish ship because they were refugees who had the black plague... Nobody would take them into port and they were out of supplies, so, I let them land. And they were healed. But they didn't want to stay... they wanted to bring other people back here who had the plague and to heal them, but mostly to make money off of it... So I sent their ships away from the island without them... they were very mad. They didn't want to stay. But they were very smart men and I knew if I let them leave they would come back."

Ricardo's expression made Jacob feel that maybe he was doing better now and he sat up, facing Ricardo as he continued.

"The man in black that you met wasn't always so angry all the time. Despite how rude they were to me, he was friendly to them and convinced them they could leave and go home if they built the wheel... He thought they could hide it from me. He didn't know that the island shows me things and I saw that the smoke couldn't leave by turning the wheel, and that it might be useful, so I allowed it. And then..." He stared into what were just orange coals now and said, "They all disappeared, and the island moved."

"How did you know it moved? What was it like?" Ricardo asked. "Did you feel it?"

"I felt something happened but it didn't feel like it moved. There was just this bright white light and..." Jacob pointed at the sky and said, "The vikings I brought were very upset that the stars didn't move above the island the same way as they do elsewhere. I figured out when they were here that the island must be different, and I developed ways to trace where and when the movements happen... Right after the first man disappeared I saw we weren't where we should have been. It wasn't until the last man turned the wheel that I realized the bright light correlation to the stars being in the wrong place. That's why I want to prevent anyone else from going down there... I don't want to move the island again like that unless I have to because one time it might move us to someplace dangerous. But now we know that people who turn the wheel end up somewhere else in the world, we just don't know where... but they can, eventually come back. If I let them."

"If Captain Hanso's ancestor named his ship the Black Rock," Ricardo said, "Does that mean the men who built that well choose his side? Just as I choose yours and so you gave me the white rock?"

Jacob nodded with a hum.

Ricardo laid on his back again and said, "Nothing I understand about the world can make any sense of this island."

Jacob smiled and said, "And nothing I learn about what happens off of it makes sense to me." Now it was Ricardo who was closing his eyes to rest and Jacob was still sitting up. "Are you glad I brought you here?" Jacob asked.

Ricardo opened his eyes and smiled, his teeth glowing white in the moonlight. "Yes Jacob. Thank you... And you did very well explaining once you got started."

Jacob squinted his eyes feeling slightly patronized, but grateful for the reassurance just the same. "Good night," he said and laid down.

...

Ricardo was up at first light, maybe even before Jacob. While not exactly tired, Jacob preferred to wake slowly and indulge in some bits of comfort before starting his day. So while he lazily made his way back to his chamber for water to make tea, Ricardo had the weapons and was even preparing a spit of sorts for his prize. It looked on the small side.

"How big do expect it to be?" Jacob asked, when he arrived back with the metal cups.

"This big," Ricardo said with a grin, holding his hands up. Jacob smirked, thinking they'd have to find a runt. When Jacob began to break a stick to restart the fire Ricardo said, "What are you doing?"

"Making tea..."

Deflating slightly, Ricardo sat and watched him. It was neither enjoyable nor relaxing to be so studied and before he even struck the flint, Jacob gave up.

"Never mind," he said. Once they drank the water cold, Ricardo was up on his feet and they were off.

...

Most of the hunt they spent trying to find tracks, and Ricardo had hunted before, just never on foot, but he knew to be quiet. When Jacob did finally see fresh droppings he stopped and pointed. Ricardo nodded and looked around. Jacob held his hand to his ear and Ricardo turned his head to listen and then he took off through the tall grass.

Jacob would have called for him and told him to wait, but it could spook and charge them. With no trees near by, that would be... Suddenly Ricardo came running back towards him, terrified. The tell tale sounds of grunting followed and Jacob rolled his eyes and took off after him.

Ricardo's language was starting to make sense to Jacob and he smiled as he ran after him, listening to the exclamation of the size of the beast being twice what he'd seen in the Canaries. When Ricardo turned towards bushes behind which there was a cliff face at fifty paces, Jacob shouted, "No, this way!"

But Ricardo didn't listen.

"Ricardo! Stop!" he shouted. But the boar had taken off after him. He would either be gored or fly off the cliff and nothing Jacob had gifted him would stop death from injuries that extensive.

Without thinking, Jacob ran after the boar and yelled, "There's a cliff! Ricardo, stop!" Jacob then threw his spear at the boar, and while he struck it, he was too far to make it stick with any depth. He'd just made it mad. As soon as the boar circled away from Ricardo and came at Jacob, Ricardo stopped running. Jacob was so relieved that he forgot for a second what was coming at him... and that he had no spear now.

Turning he saw the nearest tree and doubted he could make it in time. Oddly enough, his first thought was to call for his brother... but hadn't he decided that it wasn't his brother? And anyway, he wanted Jacob dead now. Even as Jacob ran, hearing the boar at his heels, he tried to come up with another response, some power he could use to stop this creature. It seemed ridiculous that he had to fear a dumb animal like this.

Just as he thought it, the tusks went in sharper and deeper than he expected and with a force that sent Jacob flying into the air. Hurting just as badly was landing on his back and hitting his head on a rock. Ricardo's high pitch scream was coming closer and from where he was on the ground Jacob expected the boar to either come back and finish him off, or to hear Ricardo get hit. Instead, everything went blurry and then dark.

...

When Jacob woke up, he was moving. He knew he weighed more than the smaller man, but somehow Ricardo had propped him over his shoulder as he trudged, bent over with grunts through the dark jungle.

"Put me down," Jacob managed in a whisper. He wasn't heard over Ricardo's panting and the loud frogs around them. The pain in his leg and head were excruciating and Jacob tried to move but was afraid of knocking them both over. "Please, put me down," he said. No response. "Ricardo!" he said as loud as he can. The man stopped and then gently, fell to his knees, allowing Jacob to slide off his narrow shoulder onto the ground. Looking up, Jacob couldn't tell where they were at first and the realized, they weren't anywhere near the statue yet.

At the smoke siren noise in the distance, Ricardo turned towards it and then looked back at Jacob.

"He's been following us... I can't lose him. Can you walk?" he asked.

"Don't worry about him," Jacob said. "He can't..." But just as he said it a tree nearby was uprooted and fell out of the sky right next to them. It was startling. "He can't hurt us, Ricardo."

"He can't, but can the trees?" Ricardo said, his voice cracking. "If they fall on us?"

"He knows better, he knows what will happen..." Even as Jacob said it, he wasn't sure how much his nemesis had to lose anymore. And he didn't really want to take the chance he would attempt to kill Ricardo just out of spite. Looking around Jacob gestured for a group of closely growing trees and said, "You go hide in there, I'll talk to him."

"You have lost a lot of blood, Jacob, and..."

The ticking noise was coming closer in the dark, sounding more like chains now than ever. Ricardo came up behind Jacob and grabbed him under the shoulders. "Stop," Jacob said.

"I have to bring you..."

"He can't hurt me!" Jacob said, struggling to get loose. But Ricardo didn't listen and Jacob didn't have the strength to fight. On the way he could see the smoke just hovering around them, it seemed to be curious, amused even. But then, in an instant, it flew at them and struck Ricardo, sending him flying backwards. Jacob turned and saw his friend, terrified and shaking and he turned at the smoke that was coming back for another go at the cowering man. "If you ever do that again," Jacob shouted, furious and feeling the energy of the command leaving him, "It will be your last!"

In an instant, the smoke was gone but another boar could be heard, it's hooves hitting the ground as if it was running. Ricardo got up and ran towards Jacob, jumping in front of him, he held up his meager spear. "Stupid man!" Jacob said in Latin and then grabbed Ricardo by the shirt, pulling him down to the ground next to him. He got in his face and said, "Get in the trees, now! I order you."

"I will _not_ leave you!" Ricardo said, just as the boar came out of the darkness and ran right towards them. Jacob thought it was the end for at least one of them, if not both, but instead, it ran around them twice. Ricardo poked his spear at it, and it ran off again. "Why did it not attack us?"

The whine of the smoke in the distance and sudden quiet signified he'd left and Jacob sighed.

"Because that one wasn't a _real_ boar," Jacob said. As Ricardo looked around, despite his throbbing thigh, Jacob used his friend's shoulder as a support and pushed himself to standing. "Get up," he said. "Help me... we're going home."

With Ricardo as his crutch, they made their way back to the statue and for the first time, Jacob invited him in. Ricardo didn't rest until Jacob's wounds had been cleaned and bandaged; he was near tears when he saw the damage that had been done to his thigh.

When Ricardo got up and started to leave, Jacob said, "Wait... why don't you sleep in here tonight."

"Thank you. I will stay, but I do not think I will sleep."

Jacob should have taken that for what it meant, because Ricardo not only didn't sleep, but as soon as Jacob was settled in bed, he began to talk.

"That boar was him?" he asked.

"Yes..."

"How do you know when it's him and when its not?"

"I don't. I have to figure it out," Jacob said. "But he can't take the form of living people, I know that much." His head really hurt so he asked, "Can you bring it up in the morning?'

"Yes, of course," Ricardo said. And yet, Ricardo couldn't help himself somehow. "Can you die Jacob?"

It wasn't a question he'd considered before as important. Of course he could, his mother had. He turned his head towards Ricardo and said, "Yes."

"Then you... you could have died today?"

"Yes. But I didn't."

Ricardo got up and came over to his bed, kneeling beside it. Choking up he said, "I lost my wife, to an illness that I could not stop. I killed a man trying to save her life... If you die, will I continue to live forever?"

"You said you didn't want to die, Ricardo."

"I don't want you to die either... You should be careful, much more careful than we were today."

If Jacob was less tired he might be able to explain it, so instead, he sat up and Ricardo stood and backed away. Jacob opened the slit he'd made in the side of his pant leg and exposed the bandage on his thigh. When he unwrapped it, just as he suspected, the wound was half the size it had been just hours before.

"I... I don't understand!" Ricardo declared. "That gash was so deep!"

"It's taken me a long time to realize just how special the island is," Jacob said. "I was born here. And this is just how injuries heal... and people don't get sick... they don't get the kind of diseases your wife had."

Ricardo sat back against a pillar, very relieved as Jacob wrapped the wound again. When he was done, he glanced up at him and Richard let out a small laugh and shook his head.

"Thank you, Jacob," he said. "Thank you for bringing me here."

With a smirk Jacob said, "You risked your life for me tonight. Nobody has ever done that before. It's me who should be thanking _you._" When Ricardo started to nod Jacob added, "But don't you ever do it again."

"Why? Your life is so much more important than mine! You must protect this place! I... I see now how special it is."

"The island will protect me for as long as it needs me. I don't need you risking your life."

"You told me the island brought me to you for a reason," Ricardo said. "And you said, that _you_ do what you think is right, despite the risk." Jacob took in a breath, not liking where this was going. "So will I. I will do what I think is right and I will let God... or this island, as you say it, decide if I live or not."

Jacob didn't see a way he could argue, though he didn't agree. And if that was the attitude Ricardo was going to have, Jacob would have to be very careful what he told him and what he asked of him.

...

The next day, when Jacob was fully healed, he left Ricardo to sleep and walked to the kiwi tree, to get something different for breakfast.

He was confronted.

"You cursed me yesterday," he said, following Jacob.

"You hit Ricardo... I didn't like it."

"I can't kill him," he said. "I was just testing him."

"You already tested him," Jacob said. "Leave him alone."

"Or else what? What does, 'I'll never do it again' mean?'" he said. "I have a right to know the exact consequences."

Jacob picked five and held the prickly fruit in his hand, glaring at the apparition. "If you attack Ricardo again you will find yourself very limited." The expression on his brother's face was suspicious, almost as if he didn't believe him. "I gave you the ability to take forms, I'm pretty sure I could take it away... or... take your ability to be smoke away, if you abuse it."

"You can't..."

"You want to test me?" Jacob had lost all sympathy for his brother and stared him down until he turned and walked away.

...

Twenty-five years later, a large group of people arrived. Two ships from two different places, full of people from different countries.

As he and Ricardo had both agreed, Jacob would not just remain out of the day to day business of the people, but hidden, so that nobody knew where he lived or would pass through the areas where he spent his time. He wasn't even watching Ricardo, feeling confident in his representative's abilities, having watched him deal with hostile settlers a few times already. Jacob knew this new group was much like the Egyptians, looking for a home, many of them with talents and knowledge that could help Jacob understand the world more and how to protect the island.

As he gathered flax to make thread for what would be the last two sections of his tapestry, he was approached.

"There's hundreds of them," the voice of his brother said. "What, you think it's too easy for me to pick off the smaller groups?"

"These are good people, you can't kill them," he responded. "It should be interesting for you trying to corrupt them. I wish you luck with it."

His sarcasm was received with a laugh. "How is it that Ricardo is still here, still as young as he was after all these years?" he asked Jacob. "Did you do something to him?"

"Yes. And he's not going anywhere."

"Why?" he asked. "Torturing me for eternity wasn't enough for your amusement?"

Jacob chuckled. "It was his idea, and I needed a friend I could trust." Jacob turned to him. The slight hint of sadness on his brother's borrowed face started to move Jacob until he reminded the trick. But then he wondered, what if he was wrong? What if this was more his brother than it wasn't? What if his brother _had_ darkened enough to be capable of the things he'd done? What would be worse?

"I'll see ya around, Jacob," he said.

"Can't you stay and talk?" Jacob asked.

"About what?"

"Our issues... if there is good in people or not"

He didn't even think of it, just scowled. "No," he said, "I have work to do, corrupting people, right?"

As Jacob watched him walk away, he was conflicted about bringing these new people here. And yet, he was also hopeful.

He had Ricardo. He was no longer alone.

THE END


End file.
